Original subtitles

IN SEARCH OF TADZIO

Downloaded from YTS.MX

by Luchino Visconti

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

text by Oreste Del Buono

This footage was taken during a director's long journey

in search of a character.

This footage is from Luchino Visconti's long trip

to search for a face, the face of Tadzio,

the boy in Death in Venice

who appears to Gustav von Aschenbach

as the symbol and embodiment of beauty itself.

Budapest was an intense but fruitless stop.

Visconti already had in mind the face and physical presence

as described by Thomas Mann in Death in Venice,

the novel that Visconti had chosen to adapt for the big screen.

The plot can be summed up in just a few words:

It's the story of Aschenbach, an esteemed German author

who at 50, struggles with the prospect of aging

and a lack of satisfaction in his work.

Overcome by an urgent desire for change and escape,

he leaves his home in Munich to go on vacation at the Lido of Venice.

Staying at his hotel on the Lido is a 12-year-old Polish boy, Tadzio.

The author is fascinated with the boy's stunning beauty,

so much more natural and graceful

than the aesthetic perfection he constantly strives for in his art,

not always successfully.

Tadzio is described by Mann as a blond, blue-eyed boy.

In Budapest, Visconti found only dark-haired boys with dark eyes.

I hear you're adapting Thomas Mann's novel.

Yes, Death in Venice.

- Something old again. - It's an old project, yes.

How come?

I'm curious as to why.

I've been wanting to do it for a long time.

And finally I've managed to find a combination of...

With whom?

- I'm producing it. - You're producing too?

Yes, with Warner Bros. distributing it.

The protagonist is played by Dirk Bogarde.

And the young boy...

I've been traveling to find him, to find Tadzio.

Did you like the one you saw yesterday?

Yes, but we need a young boy, about 12.

Twelve years old, I see.

The themes in your films are varied.

If we take for example, Rocco and His Brothers,

Le Notti Bianche by Dostoyevsky...

But each film is a masterpiece in its own right,

a piece of art.

However, the themes differ wildly.

Yes, that's correct. They're very different.

There are many issues and they all need to be analyzed.

Some directors focus on one theme only

and they devote their entire career

to that one theme with a few variations.

I'd rather pick different subjects

and then reach the same conclusions.

We end up saying the same things.

Budapest's ice rink,

one of the most popular meeting points for the young,

failed to provide a Tadzio.

The same goes for schools, gyms, sport clubs, all thoroughly searched.

So in the album of Visconti's journey showing the Budapest ice rink

instead of images of the sought after young man

there are images of this not-so-young woman.

How else to define this skater than a self-fancied star?

How did Thomas Mann describe Tadzio?

"With astonishment,

Aschenbach noticed that the boy was perfectly beautiful.

His countenance, pale and gracefully reserved,

surrounded by honey-colored locks,

with its evenly sloped nose, the lovely mouth,

the expression of alluring and divine earnestness,

was reminiscent of Greek statues from the most noble period.

And with all its perfection of form, it had such a personal appeal

that the onlooker thought he had never encountered anything similar,

either in nature or in art."

Did this first description and the following ones of Tadzio

match the 12-year-old Björn Andrésen from Sweden?

Indeed, Visconti found his Tadzio in Sweden.

He was the sixth or seventh boy to audition for the director

in the small room that had been rented inside a Stockholm hotel.

Visconti was instantly taken by him, however, he chose to take some time

and see a few other boys in Sweden and other countries.

He wanted to be as faithful as possible to the character of Tadzio in the book.

Come in, Margarethe.

Good morning. Sit down, please.

- A child actor. - He's an actor? Really?

And films?

Some non-speaking roles in films.

Ah, yes. I see. Yes.

- Very good. - He's 12.

- 12 years old? - Yes.

Yes. Tell him to walk very slowly.

Look at the camera. Tell him to look.

Smile.

Stop there. Stop.

Okay.

Okay.

Smile a little. Smile.

Thank you. A photo, now.

- Let's take one standing. - Standing, okay.

How do we mark the photos to remember we were in Stockholm?

- Yes, I have a list. - All right.

- Then we start the numbering again. - How will we do that?

I know which numbers.

If in Helsinki we put one, two, three, four...

Or shall we put a S or an H and so on?

Depending on the city...

We've already done these.

Number? What number is this one?

Do you speak English?

- Yes. - Oh, very well.

- Not very much. - Not very much?

- Forty years old. - Forty?

He's 40? That's phenomenal. How can he be?

- Did you mean 14? - Fourteen, yes!

Looks fantastic for 40!

Very slowly. Okay?

A little over here.

Yes.

Now look into the camera.

Good.

Smile.

Oh, no! Smile normally.

He's funny.

Thank you. Good-bye.

Turn your head a little, slowly.

- Number 36. - Yes.

How old is he?

He's very tall.

- Yes. He's 15. - He's 15.

Yes.

He's very handsome. Turn your head.

He's very handsome in the photo I saw.

Oh, yes. Do you have any photos here?

Can you stand up and walk around?

He's incredibly tall.

He's very handsome. Tell him to take of his sweater.

Look into the camera, also.

He's really handsome. He has a Greek profile.

Turn slowly.

Stop for a second.

Go for an extreme close-up.

As close as possible, but slightly sideways.

Turn slightly. Yes. Just a little. Like that.

Look over there. At this man.

No. Don't move. Only your head.

Smile.

Smile towards the camera.

Yes.

Thank you. Now let's take a photo. Mario!

Let's shoot a couple of close-ups.

Shoot him both right and left side, then do a full figure,

both dressed and with his shirt off.

Have you seen any candidates? No?

Not yet, no.

Some of them were really pretty, but nobody clicked for me.

But we're on the right track.

We'll get there.

His face is the best so far. But he's a bit too tall.

Stick to the numbers on the list.

Come in, Margarethe.

Visconti stated he deliberately wanted to put himself

in the shoes of Aschenbach

and tried to look through his eyes during the long journey

that took him all over Northern and Eastern Europe.

The character of Aschenbach is played by the English actor Dirk Bogarde

and Visconti knew he wanted to change the character slightly.

For example, to change his profession from writer to musician,

using as a model Austrian composer Gustav Mahler

who had been an inspiration for Thomas Mann as well.

However, for the character of Tadzio, he wanted to stay faithful to the novel.

Death in Venice is the film Visconti has chosen not only to direct,

but also produce after the tremendous success of The Damned.

In contrast to the Third Reich saga,

this film is apparently focused on very few external events.

The main events take place inside the main character's mind.

Gustav von Aschenbach is a very self-aware artist,

who's very rarely surprised by his own feelings.

As soon as he realizes that the appearance of Tadzio

could unsettle the rigid routine within which he's constrained his life

and upon which his career has been built,

Aschenbach attempts to escape and return to his stronghold in Munich.

However, this escape only takes him from the Lido to the Venice Rail Station.

Aschenbach then returns to the hotel

to behold and admire the miracle of beauty in this youth.

In order to justify such an apparent surrender on the part of Aschenbach

and his fanatical, almost voyeuristic urge,

it was essential for Visconti to focus on picking the right Tadzio.

The Swedish boy from Stockholm truly looked like Tadzio,

but Visconti wanted to go to Helsinki before making a decision.

However, it proved to be another fruitless stop.

Fruitless?

It did help Visconti understand what he was looking for,

so it wasn't so fruitless after all.

I don't see the eyes. What color are they?

Look over there.

Green eyes.

He has a lovely face.

Very nice face.

Tell him we'll take a photo now.

- Full figure and close-up? - Yes. If only...

Had he been brown-haired, he could have been Jaschu.

Tell him to write "Jaschu" next to his name, even if he's blonde.

He has the right face. He's a little young, but...

You have done some...

He has done some theater on television.

Great, let's take a photo.

Why are you looking for Finnish boys for your next movie?

I don't want a Finnish boy. I'm looking for a blond, blue-eyed boy.

In search of such a boy I came to Stockholm and Helsinki,

next is Warsaw, then Munich.

There are many blond people with blue eyes there.

I'd never find him in Italy, clearly.

- Green eyes, you said? - Blue eyes, light blue.

What is your method in this search?

Well, as you see I call as many young actors as possible

and then I gradually select those who I think fit the role.

What about the language issue?

The character doesn't have many lines.

He only speaks his own language.

In the novel he's Polish,

but he could just as well be Finnish or Swedish.

It doesn't matter, as long as he speaks a language

that's incomprehensible to the others, you see.

Just like in Mann's novel.

Thomas Mann's Tadzio was Polish.

Therefore it was mandatory for Visconti to visit Warsaw,

although he'd probably made his choice already.

Warsaw has changed a lot.

It's one of the cities that suffered the most during the war.

The old and new buildings tell a story of horrors and irrevocable tragedies.

Just as Warsaw and Poland have changed,

so have the young people.

It's quite hard to spot a boy quite like Tadzio was in the early 1900s.

Today's youngsters come from different backgrounds,

they are more lively and practical, less fickle and mysterious.

How did Thomas Mann describe Tadzio in his novel?

"His walk was very graceful,

both in his stance and in the movement of the knees,

the way his feet touched the ground, in a white sock, very light,

at the same time tender and proud

and made more appealing through the childlike self-consciousness.

The head of Eros,

with the yellowish tint of Parisian marble,

with exquisite and somber brows,

temples and ears covered by the dark and soft curls of his hair."

A true aristocrat, then.

But not only of perfect traits, as Thomas Mann had mentioned.

His Tadzio had quite a fiery personality.

This is how Mann describes the moment when the Polish boy

walks by some much hated Russians.

"He advanced slowly, but so nimbly and proudly

as if he was used to walking without footwear

as he surveyed the huts.

No sooner had he noticed the peaceful Russian family

that his face was clouded by a tempest of scorn and disdain.

His brow darkened, his mouth was lifted

between the lips and the cheeks an embittered tearing took place,

and his eyebrows were so heavily wrinkled

that they made the eyes appear sunken

and let them speak the evil and somber language of hatred.

He averted his glance, beheld them another time,

made a fiercely dismissive gesture with his shoulder

and turned his back unto the enemy.

A sort of tenderness or terror, something like shame or respect

caused Aschenbach to turn away

as if he had seen nothing.

Because the serious observer of a casual passion

refuses to admit his impressions

even to himself."

It's not only difficult,

but almost impossible to imagine the sophisticated Tadzio

as being the same age as today's 12 year olds in Poland.

The long search for Tadzio

obviously had to include the Lido of Venice.

From the ice and snow of Northern Europe

to the variable spring of the south.

Visconti examines, double-checks and reimagines

the main plot points of the story he will film.

This is the Hotel des Bains where Thomas Mann set the novel

and where Visconti has chosen to shoot as well.

The charm of a bygone era is to be recreated,

returning us to the first decade of this dramatic and exuberant century.

Another long journey awaits,

but this time back in time.

""So I will stay, Aschenbach thought. 'Where could it be better?'

And with his hands folded in his lap

he allowed his eyes to wander in the vastness of the sea,

his gaze slipping,

becoming blurred,

and breaking in the monotonous mist of nothingness.

He loved the ocean for several deep reasons.

Out of the desire for tranquillity harbored by the artist,

who seeks to conceal himself from the multitude of possibilities

by embracing the simple and immense.

Out of a forbidden proclivity, that made even more attractive

by running counter to his work, for the unordered,

the immeasurable, the eternal,

the void.

To find peace in the presence of the faultless

is the desire of those who seek excellence,

and is nothingness not a form of perfection?

While he was dreaming into the depth of his thoughts,

he suddenly became aware of a human figure close to the shoreline

and when he collected his glance from the unlimited,

it turned out to be the beautiful boy."

The sea is an ever more dangerous presence enveloping Venice and the Lido.

But Aschenbach doesn't worry about dangers,

he challenges it or perhaps even courts it.

It's almost as if he wants to catch cholera,

the illness that will finally kill him

on the very day that Tadzio and his family depart.

"In the afternoon Aschenbach crossed over to Venice,

during a calm and under a scorching sun,

since the obsession propelled him to follow the Polish siblings.

He did not find his idol.

But when he took his tea at his little round iron table

on the shaded portion of the square,

he suddenly noticed a strange aroma in the air,

which he had registered subconsciously for a few days already.

A sickly sweet smell reminiscent of distress and wounds

and insufficient cleanliness.

He probed it and pensively recognized it,

then finished his snack and left the square

on the side opposite the church.

In the cramped streets, the odor intensified.

At street corners, printed notices had been affixed,

warning the populace of the water in the canals

against the consumption of oysters and mussels.

The euphemistic nature of the decree was apparent."

- All right. - Thank you.

Where is he from?

- Treviso. - From Venice?

Visconti scours Venice for actors for secondary roles.

- Luciano... - Put them together.

- He needs to cut his hair. - Can you cut your hair?

Are you willing to do it?

Good.

I don't mean completely shaven, just shorter.

- He's good for the hotel. - Yes?

- The child is adorable. - Would you cast him too?

I'm not sure what he could do.

Great, yes.

Thank you, all.

They're perfect for the hotel.

We need some younger children.

What about the musicians?

Visconti's long journey in search of Tadzio is done.

He's now come to the conclusion

that the young boy from Stockholm, Björn Andrésen, is the ideal Tadzio.

See you again in Rome, so we can set up...

Visconti dismisses his team after setting a date.

Good-bye.

They will reconvene again to start shooting Death in Venice,

"a somber, pure tale," as described by Thomas Mann.

The appointment has been made. Tadzio will be there too.

He's no longer Björn Andrésen.

His name is now Tadzio, just Tadzio.

He's a living, beautiful creature,

yet at the same time a projection of the mind,

in Visconti's own words.