Death In Venice: A Queer Film Classic

(Paperback)

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Description

Based on Thomas Mann's novella of the same name, Death in Venice told the story of a middle-aged man (played by Dirk Bogarde) on holiday in Venice who becomes obsessed with a youth staying at the same hotel as a wave of cholera descends upon the city. Directed by one of Italy's openly gay, revolutionary filmmakers, Luchino Visconti, Death in Venice became one of the most controversial films of the 1970s. Analysing the film's cultural impact and providing a vivid portrait of the director, Death in Venice is an essential guide.

Reviews

A romp ... Aitken zigzags from Platen to Plato to Visconti's love life with irresistible charm. --Andrew Holleran, Washington Post

There is much to admire in Aitken's poetic and personal account of the film ... [It] begins to unfold the complexity and richness of a film whose true brilliance many have yet failed to appreciate. --Film Quarterly

Will Aitken's superb study of Death in Venice grasps the prickliest nettles surrounding the film - just how homosexual Mann, the novel and the film really are, the notion of decadence, the film's soporific languor and its supposed queer abjection--and subjects them to a scrutiny at once unflinching, generous and constantly illuminating. This is a model of how to intertwine personal response, empirical detail, precise filmic description and wider theoretical issues without ever collapsing these into each other. And it is written with a wonderfully judged wryness and fluency that beautifully evokes and vindicates a magnificent, troubling film. --Richard Dyer

As a longtime devotee of the films of Luchino Visconti, I'm thrilled to report that this new critical study on the work of Visconti is an admirable addition to any film aficionado's library. --Gay & Lesbian Review

A romp...Aitken zigzags from Platen to Plato to Visconti's love life with irresistible charm.--Andrew Holleran, Washington Post

Author Bio

Will Aitken: Will Aitken is a novelist, journalist, screenwriter, multimedia director and teacher born in Terre Haute, Indiana and now based in Montreal. His novels include Realia, A Visit Home and Terre Haute. He has written for The Paris Review and a variety of other publications and worked as a writer-broadcaster for the CBC, the BBC and NPR.