The now-classic film from gay director Luchino Visconti ("Rocco and His Brothers," "The Damned") about an artist in search of purity and beauty but who ultimately becomes fatally obsessed with an exquisite teenage boy is a melancholy experience. Set in turn-of-the-century Venice, this languidly paced, darkly atmospheric film stars Dirk Bogarde as Aschenbach, an older man enamored with a flirtatious but unattainable beautiful youth (Björn Andresen), and who is gradually weakened by the cholera epidemic sweeping the city. ( ... )

Trailer & more photos after the jump
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Based on the Thomas Mann novella of same name, Visconti changed Aschenbach's profession from writer to composer -- enabling him to fill a largely wordless film with the wondrous music of Gustav Mahler. And like Aschenbach, Visconti is an artist obsessed: his movies are awash in mood, period detail and seething emotions beneath placid surfaces. Earning its maker a Cannes Film Festival Special 25th Anniversary Prize, "Death in Venice" -- with a haunting Bogarde performance -- is Visconti at his best.