Gustav Von Aschenbach

The director maintained that he deliberately put himself in Gustav von Aschenbach's shoes,

that he looked around with Aschenbach's eyes, in the long journey that took him around in Northern Europe and Eastern Europe.

Visconti had already decided to modify a bit Aschenbach's character, played by English actor Dirk Bogarde, and to change his profession from writer to musician. He decided to shape it after a real musician, the composer Gustav Mahler, who inspired Thomas Mann, too.

But for Tadzio's character, he stayed as true to the text as possible. Gustav von Aschebach is a self-aware artist, a rational man who knows himself and is rarely taken by suprise. When he realizes that Tadzio's presence can destroy the rigid customs on which he built his life and his career, Aschebach tries to escape and go back to Munich. But his escape doesn't go any further than a trip from Lido to Venice's train station, and Aschenbach is back at the hotel to spy and admire the miracle

of beauty in a creature.

To justify Aschenbach's abdication and that he turns into a fanatic visionary, it was absolutely necessary to be as true to the text as possible, in the choice of Tadzio.

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