A somewhat forgotten picture, made at the end of the career of Visconti. It is considered the last film from the "German trilogy", "The Damned" (1969) and "Death in Venice" (1971) being the first two films of this trilogy. When you substitute "Il Gattopardo" (1963) for "Death in Venice" you can also talk about a trilogy of "decadence and change of power". This trilogy is somewhat more spread out in time, but between 1963 and 1969 Visconti did not produce films of great interest.
The reasons that this picture has fallen into oblivion are rather obvious. It is very long (nearly 4 hours) and the emphasis seems to be more on beautiful pictures than on an interesting story.
I said "seems to be" because I do not agree. The film is about a man going from unworldy to straightout mad. This is a slow proces and the film shows every nuance of it. So the film is long for a good reason.
Watching the movie it is nearly inevitable to think about Michael Jackson who withdrew more and more into his fantasy world Neverland, just like Ludwig withdrew more and more into his fantasycastle Neuschwanstein.
The reasons that this picture has fallen into oblivion are rather obvious. It is very long (nearly 4 hours) and the emphasis seems to be more on beautiful pictures than on an interesting story.
I said "seems to be" because I do not agree. The film is about a man going from unworldy to straightout mad. This is a slow proces and the film shows every nuance of it. So the film is long for a good reason.
Watching the movie it is nearly inevitable to think about Michael Jackson who withdrew more and more into his fantasy world Neverland, just like Ludwig withdrew more and more into his fantasycastle Neuschwanstein.