Day 095: Death in Venice
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day 95
— Death in Venice
05-November-1971
(Fri.)
TRANSCRIPT
At night, saw
Der Tod in Venedig, the movie about Gustav
Mahler and the latter years of his life—and mostly
“his love for a young boy” and his fear that he was
homosexual and the tensions and sorrows of life that
way.
It was excellent. The emotion and music
made my insides all tense; you could easily imagine
what he was going through—his confusion, fear, love,
inability to express himself, keeping his emotion
inside. Even though the subject matter might be
different, I know that I have felt the same way
sometimes—something inside bothers you and you want
to make it real, but you don’t.
I’ll try and see it again.
REFLECTIONS
Death
in Venice. Wow, this
surprises me. I normally don’t get excited about a
movie to that extent.
Der Tod in Venedig
(Death in Venice) is the
title, and perhaps this movie is entirely fiction and
not about Mahler. Although, I don’t remember much of
the movie, I think I remember that the music
soundtrack was of Mahler’s music. If so, I can guess
that the powerful combination of the movie’s visuals
and Mahler’s music would be moving. I remember one of
the opening themes of his symphonies as the prominent
theme. I wonder if it is even possible to find this
movie today. Now, I’m curious and want to see the
movie.
Mahler.
I find it
interesting that while I am in school studying music
and composers, I never learned about these social and
hidden aspects of composer’s lives. I suspect that it
may be that these facts have not been proven totally
true. They may be speculation. Here is one fact to
take away from this—everyone has struggles in life.
That’s a part of life. But isn’t it interesting to
know that a composer like Mahler, if he had such
issues, could write such immortal music? He speaks
through his music. He moves forward. He goes on.
Feelings and expression. Movie
aside, facing our "life" issues with a positive
output (i.e. being creative) is not easy to do. Often
we give up, go down a wrong path, or have feelings of
hopelessness. We just have to try our best to be
positive. Easier said than done. Certainly, every one
of us goes through similar types of feelings for any
number of reasons. Try to be positive. Don't obsess
about worry. Talk with a friend and let your feelings
out. Move forward. One-step-at-a-time, one foot
in-front-of-the-other. Life goes on.
John's
like you. Just to be
down-to-earth, I don't go around smiling all the
time, telling everyone how wonderful life is, and why
don't they go out and enjoy the fall foliage. I don't
like those people. I complain. I'm tired. I work too
much. I have unfulfilled dreams. There is never
enough money. I'm like you. Writing does help me to
think about being more positive, though. Give it a
try.
Internet
enlightenment. The
Internet comes to the rescue. How did we ever live
without it?
First, from
Wikipedia—the
Italian film uses the music of Mahler, including
the opening
Adagietto from
Mahler’s
Fifth Symphony, and
other excerpts from his
Third and
Fourth Symphonies. While the
story is not really about Mahler, the parallels are
striking, especially since Mahler’s music is present.
There is a good synopsis of the movie here. Oh,
Venice is in a cholera epidemic.
Another movie database with information about the
creators and actors of movies is the
imdb (Internet
Movie Database) that also shows actor and composer
information. Here is the information on
Death in
Venice (Morte
a Venezia).
Wikipedia works on reader donations. I’ll need to
donate a little, since I rely on them so heavily.
John
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