CinemaSerf

May 30, 2022

7.0

If there ever were to be a story of not just how transitory beauty is, but of how shallow too - then it has to be this documentary film. Kristina Lindström starts us off in the grubby and filthy apartment of Björn Andrésen. His neighbours are threatening to have him evicted if he doesn't up his game... Who is he and why should we care? Well we are quickly taken back fifty years to auditions held by Luchino Visconti for his soon to be made "Death in Venice". He is looking to cast the part of "Tadzio" - the stunningly beautiful, angelic, young man who turns the head of just about everyone in this most romantic of cities - but especially that of Dirk Bogarde's "Gustav von Aschenbach". What now ensues is a tale of a young man who must learn quickly to deal with the discipline and adulation of fame; but also with it's fickleness and with the troughs that always follow the all-too-brief moments of joy and celebrity. Let's just say that this young man didn't have his tragedies and battles to seek as he aged and this film portrays honestly, though not unsympathetically, as he learned to cope and is still trying to cope now. It features plenty of archive actuality to give the narrative gravitas and authenticity - and offers a salutary warning about the volatility of life in and after a bright, bright spotlight.