The film version of [Soul Broken Venice] has less dialogue. The whole film is composed of exquisite pictures and Mahler's "Symphony No. 3" and "Symphony No. 5". The long notes of Mahler's aftertaste surround the audience, just as the protagonist of the film is trapped in the surrounding waters of Venice. Water and music, as elements throughout the film, effectively embed the feeling of "indulge" in the viewers' consciousness. This is also the biggest difference between the Visconti version of the film and Thomas Mann's original novel. Although the protagonist Oceanbach’s profession has changed from a writer in a novel to a musician in a movie, Thomas Mann and Visconti also use this character as a master to express their views and demands on art and beauty. . The difference is that Thomas Mann narrates the story in a third-person, more neutral tone, and there is a bit of self-deprecating teasing in addition to the emotional investment; Visconti, with a sensual tone, almost unreservedly identify with Austria in the movie. Shenbach's indulge in beauty and sensory pleasure. In addition, it is rumored that Visconti’s illness-ridden situation during the filming of this film coincides with the plague-stricken Oceanbach in the film. It is even more suspicious that this exhausted but still pursuing aesthetic artist is Visconti himself. The screen stand-in.
Like a drowning man, Oceanbach was immersed in the air of the Venetian plague, unable to extricate himself. The dark and eerie atmosphere of Venice was elicited by the image of a clown with white face and red lips when Oceanbach disembarked. His vague and nonsensical words set the ominous tone for the subsequent development of the story. A similar image of a clown reappears in the middle of the movie as a wandering singer. He also has red lips and white face, singing ridiculous Italian songs, which makes it difficult to appreciate the humorous nature of Oceanbach outsider. The last appearance of the image of the clown was on Oceanbach himself. In order to meet Dagio, he dyed his hair black, bleached his face and painted red lips. The self-portrait of him is reminiscent of the clowns in Fellini's movies. It is both terrible and funny, but also full of self-pity. Sad emotions. At this time, after many coincidences, he could not escape Venice. It seems that he has accepted his fate to die here. After contracting the plague, he laughed up to the sky on the rotten and dirty streets of Venice, revealing a trace of desperate vision, even if he knew himself. I must die, and I must sublime death into a beautiful performance art.
The three appearances of the image of the clown, while gradually conveying the atmosphere of death, secretly remind the audience of the passage of time. For Oceanbach, the fateful end of time is undoubtedly death. However, meeting the beautiful young man Dagio was a major turning point for him. Before he firmly believed that art should abandon sensory pleasure and represent the brilliance of reason and dignity. Only after meeting the teenager did he discover that the clichés of reason and wisdom were facing Simple and crude sensory enjoyment is so pale and feeble. At this time, he just wanted to indulge in the beauty of the world like no one else, and let the time stay at the moments when the beautiful boy appeared. Visconti’s handling of these moments shows his mastery in film language. He uses noisy and chaotic scenes to lead the entire passage, and then uses a zoom lens to complete the transition from a large scene to a small scene. , Using a subjective perspective to show the continuous narrowing and concentration of the role's attention. In the final close-up or close-up shots, only the characters staring at each other are left, and the unrelated passing and cluttered environmental sounds are filtered out, just like Alain Delon and Crow in the dinner section of the previous work [Leopard] (1963) Claudia Cardinale suddenly stared silently at the close-up. Time and space seem to have been ignored or stopped in these front and back shots. The infinite beauty and poetry in the facial expressions of the two gazes are magnified and refined, becoming the audience's deepest memory of the film.
However, the beauty of the moment can hardly resist the mediocrity of life and the old age, just like the passage of Oschenbach looking at Dagio from the sea for the first time, although people will remember the scenes of Dagio playing with his servants in spite of favor, but also It is impossible to ignore the description of the mediocre and boring attitude of the beach tourists in the middle of the passage. Aesthetics is always surrounded by mediocre environments, and perhaps only mediocre beings can better bring out the artist's outstanding aesthetic taste. [Hunbreak Venice] is such a film full of cruel contrasts, the contrast between the beauty of a teenager and the decadence of a musician, and Oceanbach’s sincere desire as a child when faced with a teenager (thanks to Dirk Bogard. The contrast between the alternative performance) and his already exhausted body, the lengthy contrast between the unattainable ideal and the inescapable life, these conflicting poles bring tension and distance to the film. Oschenbach and Dagio are at the opposite ends of the contrast, so that his beauty of youth can only be viewed from the side but can never be his own. It is this kind of pain that tore his weak body to pieces.
[Soul Broken Venice] The passage of Aschenbach following Dagio’s group in the streets and alleys of Venice reminds me of Visconti’s previous work [情情] (Senso) in the Austrian military officer (Farley Granger) in the rolling alleys Following the countess played by Alida Valli. The use of the fascinating scenery of Venice and the unforgettable character positioning and lens scheduling in the two films make these two passages like two dances of the people in the play under the natural setting of the water city. However, it is also the story of the death of love. The rotten fruits and vegetables and the haunting smoke on the streets of [Hun Broken Venice] are a bit more pathologically beautiful than [Eros] which concerns the country. Just like Dagio and his actor Björn Andresen are beautiful and beautiful, his face is not so much reminiscent of youth, but rather it evokes a fascination with death. Anderson’s elusive and corrupt temperament belonged only to Visconti and Venice where the plague prevailed, so that even after several works came out, he was still shrouded in the role of Dagio and the love and hate of him and Visconti. Under the shadow of relationship. As for Visconti, he did not escape the fate he wrote for himself in this film. Surrounded by illness, depression, and gossip about his private life, he died in Rome five years later. In contrast, we, as the audience, may be fortunate that we can at least get away after being indulged in this pathologically beautiful work for a short time.
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