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Luchino Visconti Abused Bjorn Andresen

Bjorn andresen, born in Stockholm, Sweden on January 26, 1955, was only 15 when he played the androgenous youth in Death In Venice. This was a controversial film (by Luchino Visconti) about the forbidden subject of pederasty. "Tadzio,"

Andresen's Polish character in the film, was represented solely as a sex object ..... Visconti forced the actors to re-read the novel 40 times. While Bjorn Andresen was strictly forbidden. As Dirk Bogard later recalled in his memoirs, Visconti in every possible way limited Bjorn's freedom: he was forbidden to swim in the sea, sunbathe (so as not to lose his aristocratic pallor), play football with the guys on the set. When Andresen began to flirt with the girls who played the roles of his sisters, Visconti got angry and threatened to stop the filming process.

The premiere of "Death in Venice" took place on March 1, 1971 in Cannes ... “After the premiere of the film in Cannes, Visconti took me to a gay club. But I was only 16! He and almost the entire film crew were gay and regulars in similar establishments. The waiters and visitors looked at me as if I was a piece of meat "I knew I couldn't react," he says. "It would have been social suicide. But it was the first of many such encounters."

"The experience I got as a teenager had a very negative impact on my psyche. I succumbed to the universal influence and simply hurt my psyche "...

Bjorn, whose psyche was undermined in his youth, had a nervous breakdown. “My therapist helped me to understand myself. Together we analyzed my personal and professional life. He explained that Cannes was not the best place for a shy teenager. "

About "Death in Venice" and Luchino Visconti Bjorn Andresen prefers to forget once and for all. He could not forgive the despicable act of the director.

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by Anonymousreply 215October 23, 2021 4:36 PM

Oh FFS. At 15 he starred in an absolute masterpiece from one of the greatest geniuses in the history of cinema. This is not Visconti’s fault if he never reached again such professional heights afterwards. He should be grateful to have experienced what he did. Ungrateful brat.

by Anonymousreply 1December 24, 2020 9:02 AM

dude u were awesome in that film! one of the great pieces of cinema....sorry u had a bad experience with pervy Visconti....

by Anonymousreply 2December 24, 2020 9:04 AM

After psychotherapy, he found hope again. He wrote music for theatrical performances, was engaged in tutoring, and occasionally filmed. In 1994, he suffered a second nervous breakdown. After rehabilitation, Bjorn decides to finally leave the acting profession.

In 2003, the Australian feminist Germaine Greer published the book "Handsome Boy". It was a collection of photographs of child actors and models. On the cover she put a photo of Bjorn from the filming of Death in Venice. Bjorn, who could not stand reminders of this period of his life, sued the writer. He accused her of promoting pedophilia and using his photo without permission.

He didn't win the lawsuit was not won because the copyright belonged to the legendary photographer David Bailey. “I'm not homophobic. But I am against the relationship of adolescents with older men. In my youth, I became a victim of such connections. Think about the mental state of the children involved in this ”.

"Adult love for adolescents is something that I am against in principle," he says. "Emotionally perhaps, and intellectually, I am disturbed by it - because I have some insight into what this kind of love is about."

Isn't it strange, then, that he found himself now appropriated as an object of desire by a famous feminist? Wasn't part of feminism's original protest against precisely such "objectification"?

"It is ironic, yes," Andresen remarks. He has spent most of his adult life seeking to be invisible, just one of the crowd. Has he ever been tempted to alter his appearance?

"Not only my appearance, but my whole identity,"

In 2005, he sued a German film studio, which illegally used his image in the Visconti film for their own purposes. Then he won the trial. He now lives on the outskirts of Stockholm with his wife. Their daughter Robin Roman lives nearby with her husband and children. Andresen continues to successfully work at a music school as a piano teacher and act in films.

The musician has ensured himself complete anonymity, Bjorn once said that if at the age of 15 he knew how his life would turn out after the film, he would not agree to the role under any circumstances ...

“Thanks to Visconti, I met many interesting people and was able to visit abroad. But it would be much better if I didn't star in this film at all. It wasn't worth it. I needed to lead a normal teenage life. "

In an interview with journalist Andre Shen, Bjorn said: “People needlessly associate beauty with youth only. Beauty is not only among young people. It is endowed with the elderly, and animals, and nature. It is hidden even in everyday little things. You just need to open your eyes wider. "

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by Anonymousreply 3December 24, 2020 9:05 AM

He is going to have a doc premiere at Sundance 2021. Called the Most Beautiful Boy in the World, I believe. Looks interesting.

by Anonymousreply 4December 24, 2020 9:09 AM

He gets taken to a gay club in Cannes by one of the most accomplished European film directors of late his era, treated like a piece of meat (guessing he means stared at and complimented) by everybody there and it causes a nervous breakdown. Talk about humble brag.

by Anonymousreply 5December 24, 2020 9:13 AM

R4 I wonder if Bjorn gave his consent to this documentary. If not, He will have a really hard time with this documentary being made and talked about. He wants to erase this movie and period from his life

by Anonymousreply 6December 24, 2020 9:17 AM

R5 You don't understand the hint, He was sexually abused by older pervert men.

by Anonymousreply 7December 24, 2020 9:18 AM

R7 ok I’ve read post 3 now, you’re right, the first part of the article was more vague. If this is the case than he has my sympathy.

by Anonymousreply 8December 24, 2020 9:20 AM

Between Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli, I’m sure there are more stories to be told, they seemed to be quite similar in that regard.

by Anonymousreply 9December 24, 2020 9:24 AM

So Visconti deserves a pass because he was aristocracy and high brow unlike Bryan Singer? Same for his jet-set ephebophile friends?

by Anonymousreply 10December 24, 2020 9:28 AM

R10 These old perverted artists/celebrities got away with a lot of shit.

by Anonymousreply 11December 24, 2020 9:29 AM

I don’t think the film screwed him up. I think that was in his personality to begin with. He was given the opportunity of a lifetime, and I think he hobbled it with possibly an ungenerous moody nature. At least that’s the way he comes across. Many adolescents are that way, but I think I more open hearted soul would have blossomed from the experience.

Interestingly, there’s a new bio out on the author Norman Douglas, of the fab South Wind, called Unspeakable. That’s someone who had sex with probably hundreds of boys — not adolescents like Andresson, and they seemed to have adored him, which certainly presents a brain fuse blowing contradiction to the Y’alls Victims paradigm. An intractable dilemma.

by Anonymousreply 12December 24, 2020 9:30 AM

[quote] He could not forgive the despicable act of the director.

Now what "despicable act" is that?

Is it mentioned by the OP?

by Anonymousreply 13December 24, 2020 9:30 AM

Visconti's movies are an over indulgent bore. I have no problem believing he thought he was entitled to molesting young boys.

by Anonymousreply 14December 24, 2020 9:32 AM

[quote] new bio out on the author Norman Douglas, of the fab South Wind, called Unspeakable

Does this biography contain documented footnotes? Or is it speculative hogwash?

by Anonymousreply 15December 24, 2020 9:32 AM

R14 I think he enjoyed all ages. He was involved with Helmut, and is rumoured to have had Alain Delon too. I imagine he tried with Marc Porel and some others too. He seemed to have a type.

by Anonymousreply 16December 24, 2020 9:35 AM

R13 Read R3

by Anonymousreply 17December 24, 2020 9:38 AM

Why hint, r7? I don’t understand if he was actually abused why not say. The claim that being taken to a gay club and stared is a horrible and traumatic experience is ridiculous (think what every girl experiences). At r3 he says he was a victim of ‘those connections’, but since he sees his experience in the film as terrible, it is not clear at all he was sexually abused.

by Anonymousreply 18December 24, 2020 9:39 AM

[quote] Or is it speculative hogwash?

Anything but speculative. The love letters from the boys to Douglas, including as men, ( one became a policeman) were collected and published years ago. This apparently just provides more background.

by Anonymousreply 19December 24, 2020 9:39 AM

Helmut Berger was 20 when he met Visconti.

by Anonymousreply 20December 24, 2020 9:39 AM

He worked with so many beautiful of age actors, Delon, Berger, Marc Porel, Helmut Griem, Farley Granger, Massimo Girotti, Pierre Clémenti, Giuliano Gemma, Jean Sorel, Terence Hill, Nino Castelnuovo... so many, I can’t think of another director who cast so many beautiful men in his films.

by Anonymousreply 21December 24, 2020 9:43 AM

[quote] So Visconti deserves a pass.

I’d be quite happy to bus over an entire convent school to Polanski if it encouraged him to make more films.

by Anonymousreply 22December 24, 2020 9:43 AM

So the actor was taken to a homosexual bar 50 years ago. Is that the despicable act we're supposed to be worried about?

by Anonymousreply 23December 24, 2020 9:46 AM

Renaud Verley is still alive and would have been rather young when working on The Damned, I wonder if he has any stories. He fits the beautiful boy type too.

by Anonymousreply 24December 24, 2020 9:47 AM

R21 He obtained the services of Farley Granger but he was the second choice.

Visconti really wanted Monty who in town at the time.

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by Anonymousreply 25December 24, 2020 9:49 AM

What about me? Am I chopped liver?

- Burt Lancaster

by Anonymousreply 26December 24, 2020 9:50 AM

R23 [quote] “I'm not homophobic. But I am against the relationship of adolescents with older men. In my youth, I became a victim of such connections. Think about the mental state of the children involved in this ”.

In post 3 he’s a bit more explicit although to me it’s still a little vague.

What I’m getting from it the most is that he felt uncomfortable as a teenager getting attention from grown men. But this quote could also suggest he was more aggressively targeted.

by Anonymousreply 27December 24, 2020 9:50 AM

That's Romy Schneider Visconti is talking to in OP's picture.

by Anonymousreply 28December 24, 2020 9:52 AM
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by Anonymousreply 29December 24, 2020 9:54 AM

Bjorn today

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by Anonymousreply 30December 24, 2020 9:55 AM

So did Visconti's penis touch Mr Andresen?

by Anonymousreply 31December 24, 2020 9:56 AM
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by Anonymousreply 32December 24, 2020 9:56 AM

[quote]Swedish actor Björn Andrésen, who, at age 15, played Tadzio, the symbol of mythic beauty and youth (and ultimately an angel of death) that obsesses Dirk Bogarde’s Gustav von Aschenbach in Luchino Visconti’s “Death in Venice” (1971), also appears in a significantly symbolic capacity in Ari Aster’s brilliant “Midsommar” (2019).

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by Anonymousreply 33December 24, 2020 9:57 AM

R28 Yes, Visconti is talking to Romy Schneider and a sullen, ill-mannered brat.

by Anonymousreply 34December 24, 2020 9:59 AM

I wonder if he was up for a role in Ludwig, perhaps the role that went to John Moulder-Brown. It seems he’s the type that Visconti would have worked with again.

by Anonymousreply 35December 24, 2020 10:07 AM

Bjorn Andresen suing the author of "Handsome Boy" book for using his photo (from Death in Venice film) on its cover and accusing her of promoting pedophilia Says it all.

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by Anonymousreply 36December 24, 2020 10:19 AM

R36 Yes, but is this a Maria Schneider situation where the actor feels exploited but it’s all a bit blurry?

by Anonymousreply 37December 24, 2020 10:24 AM

The implication is that he was abused in some way in Cannes.

by Anonymousreply 38December 24, 2020 10:29 AM

If Germaine Greer or the publisher, have asked him beforehand, would he have given his permission?

"Of course not. Not until hell freezes over." Bjorn answered.

by Anonymousreply 39December 24, 2020 10:29 AM

Death in Venice was a snoozefest masterpiece on which I dozed off intermittently. ZzzzzzzZZZZzz

by Anonymousreply 40December 24, 2020 10:31 AM

R38 It's obvious.

by Anonymousreply 41December 24, 2020 10:32 AM

Some people just can't handle the drama. Visconti clearly played petty mind games and did likely even worse (sexual assault and pimping out boys like Bjorn?).

Sorry if that makes me a prude, but I don't think Hollywood, and the film and entertainment industry in general, is a good and healthy place for children and minors.

by Anonymousreply 42December 24, 2020 10:32 AM

R38 "in some way" sounds indistinct, unclear, hazy, cloudy, fuzzy, misty, lacking definition, blurred, murky and foggy.

by Anonymousreply 43December 24, 2020 10:33 AM

Reminds me of this thread ...

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by Anonymousreply 44December 24, 2020 10:36 AM

It really just sounds like an attractive straight guy’s first time in a gay club in a foreign place. Of course he would not have been comfortable at his age and with attention from grown-ass men many of whom it seems were flamingly obvious and obnoxious in their lust for him.

by Anonymousreply 45December 24, 2020 10:38 AM

It's never a good idea to push someone in a direction he doesn't want to go, or when he doesn't have the maturity to comprehend the basics of life like actions have consequences.

by Anonymousreply 46December 24, 2020 10:45 AM

Why would Alain Delon pimp and make his own child (Anthony) write love letters to Visconti unless Delon knew about Visconti pedophilic inclination?!

From Helmut Berger's book:

"To serve his ends, Delon went so far as to use his son Anthony. He made him write love letters to Visconti, with his childish handwriting. But I ruined his plans.

One day, Delon visited us. I opened the door and, to piss him off, I asked him what his name was. Pretending not to know him, I slammed the door in his face.

I knew immediately that he was going to resort to any means to advance his career. Shortly after, when love letters from Delon containing statements of hidden love arrived at the house, Delon made his 7 years old son write love letters to Visconti, signed with his small child's hand. I found that repugnant. I gave an ultimatum to Visconti. No, I won't be a willing cuckold!

It's still amazing: a father dictated his statements exalted to his seven year old son! I will never forgive Delon to have manipulated his son, to reach Luchino Visconti. I did everything to ensure that Visconti did not never again to work with Delon. He had been lucky by two times and that was good enough. "

by Anonymousreply 47December 24, 2020 10:45 AM

[quote] attention from grown-ass men

Yes, R45, they were men who appreciated the ass, but that skinny Swedish twink had NO physique at all.

by Anonymousreply 48December 24, 2020 11:01 AM

R47 clearly a pedofile.

by Anonymousreply 49December 24, 2020 11:03 AM

R47 to me it sounds like a he wanted a similar situation to Karl Largerfeld and Brad Kroenig, where he’s sort of like an adopted godfather or whatever to little Anthony. Didn’t the Visconti family own Milan!? Some godfather to have!

by Anonymousreply 50December 24, 2020 11:05 AM

Am I the only one who doesn't have the fucked-up r1 on ignore? No one has said anything about him declaring a teenager should be grateful for being sexually abused.

by Anonymousreply 51December 24, 2020 11:12 AM

R51 we are still not clear if he was sexually abused or not. Just that he felt incredibly uncomfortable being objectified by gay men.

by Anonymousreply 52December 24, 2020 11:14 AM

"He was born to be looked at!"

For poor Björn Andresen, the film screwed up his life more than Last Tango in Paris for Maria Schneider. A few years ago, when he was in his fifties, he came out of anonymity to sue Germaine Greer, the once furious feminist who went so far off that, in her latest book. La Greer had asked for the cover of his book a photo of Andresen taken by David Bayley during the filming of Death in Venice. The publisher had negotiated permission to use the image with the legal owner of the rights, which was the photographer, so Andresen's legal claim was unsuccessful.

But his complaints in court (that the film had literally ruined his life and that he found it aberrant that his image was used to celebrate romantic relationships between adults and adolescents) were amplified into catastrophic letters by the English tabloids and the publisher ended discreetly withdrawing Greer's book from circulation.

When the scandal broke, pieces of a 1970 Italian documentary called Alla ricerca di Tadzio appeared on the web, in which a RAI cameraman follows Visconti throughout his pilgrimage to Eastern Europe. The documentary offers great moments, like when Visconti complains that in the entire Polish territory he has not been able to find a single child with aristocratic features (“They are all proletarians!”, The exquisite communist count mutters at one point).

Until, in a hotel in Stockholm, Björn Andresen makes his entrance into the room where the casting takes place. Visconti whispers: "He was born to be looked at" and asks him to take off his shirt. The teenager thinks he has misunderstood and looks around with some alarm but finally consents and, despite the poor quality of the footage, the effect it produces is palpable.

The voiceover pompously announces that Visconti has found his holy grail in Björn Andresen. But why keep calling him Björn? From that moment on, he will be simply Tadzio for the world (“E Tadzio is enough!”)

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by Anonymousreply 53December 24, 2020 11:18 AM

[quote]I am against the relationship of adolescents with older men. In my youth, I became a victim of such connections.

This seems pretty clear to me.

by Anonymousreply 54December 24, 2020 11:21 AM

R54 Very clear

by Anonymousreply 55December 24, 2020 11:22 AM

[quote] objectified

Tadzio wasn't objectified as a sexual object. Tadzio was merely a mute symbol of a 'natural God-made beauty'.

Aschenbach was working himself into an early grave because he thought his genius and his 'unnatural' (ie forced) striving could create a man-made beauty.

You will remember the scene when Aschenbach argues with his assistant Alfred (played by Mark Burns).

Gustav von Aschenbach obsesses—

[quote] You know sometimes I think that artists are rather like hunters aiming in the dark. They don't know what their target is, and they don't know if they've hit it. But you can't expect life to illuminate the target and steady your aim. The creation of beauty and purity is a spiritual act.

Alfred argues back—

[quote] No Gustav, no. Beauty belongs to the senses. Only to the senses.

by Anonymousreply 56December 24, 2020 11:28 AM

I don’t think sullen sour bitches should speak for anyone. Someone should have told her: “ Honey, you weren’t that special”. Throw a rock in a provincial Swedish school, hit a dozen.

by Anonymousreply 57December 24, 2020 11:29 AM

[quote] Death in Venice was a snoozefest masterpiece

Yes, I rather agree, R40, but it opened up an appreciation of Mahler and his 'Adagietto' for me—

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by Anonymousreply 58December 24, 2020 11:36 AM

R20 Helmut Berger was 20 when he met Visconti but he looked much younger.

A photo taken by Visconti in 1964

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by Anonymousreply 59December 24, 2020 11:44 AM
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by Anonymousreply 60December 24, 2020 12:01 PM

Well, he looks like Martha Plimpton, so...

by Anonymousreply 61December 24, 2020 12:06 PM

Andresen was a vacant-faced, passive twink and just as annoying as that vacant-faced, passive twink Chalamet is today.

by Anonymousreply 62December 24, 2020 12:06 PM

I think that there are some sickos here who are jealous of Bjorn Andersen for having been the object of desire and sexually abused by old pervert Visconti.

by Anonymousreply 63December 24, 2020 12:13 PM

R61 oh come on, much prettier than Martha Plimpton!

by Anonymousreply 64December 24, 2020 12:13 PM

Where was his parents?

by Anonymousreply 65December 24, 2020 12:17 PM

R65 Europe circa 1970, his parents were thrilled at his opportunity to work with a famous director. And if it took turning a blind eye to their son being fondled by a few pervs, well then so be it.

Puritanism never took hold in Sweden.

by Anonymousreply 66December 24, 2020 12:23 PM

I'm not convinced that he's saying he suffered anything beyond being objectified and suffering some sort of homosexual panic. The most explicit he gets is "I am against the relationship of adolescents with older men. In my youth, I became a victim of such connections": in context this refers to Visconti's ordering him around on the set and taking him to a gay bar where everybody leered at him, which he goes on and on about.

It has to be admitted that these three excerpts, wherever they come from, have been crudely translated out of some European language (Swedish?) and it's hard to see what words like "relationship" and "connections" meant in the original. "I succumbed to the universal influence and simply hurt my psyche"—???

by Anonymousreply 67December 24, 2020 12:25 PM

What is missing from that sentence is ‘sexual’, r54. IIf you are accusing someone of sexual abuse you should be more explicit, especially since the episodes he recounts (gay club, restrictions to behaviour on set) may have been uncomfortable and a bad idea for someone so young, but are not sexual abuse. Why not just come out and say it?

by Anonymousreply 68December 24, 2020 12:30 PM

R65

Bjorn Johan Andresen was born on January 26, 1955 in the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. His mother Barbara was associated with a wealthy married man. He was rumored to be a member of the Stockholm Literary Association. The illegitimate child was not included in his plans. He tried to persuade his mistress to have an abortion, but it was too late. Father in Bjorn's life absolutely did not take any part.

When Bjorn was 6 years old, his mother was deprived of maternal rights, his grandmother became the official guardian. After 3 years, Barbara Andresen disappeared without a trace. At 14, Bjorn finally learned that his mother had committed suicide.

Life before Tadzio From childhood, Bjorn dreamed of becoming a pianist. Fortunately, he had an ear for music, and when he was 8 years old, he was easily accepted into the elite classical music school Madorufu Fredrik in Stockholm.

The boy did not even think about an acting career. Bjorn's grandmother, who worked at a Swedish film studio, had long wanted to make an actor out of her grandson.

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by Anonymousreply 69December 24, 2020 12:30 PM

I think we're all looking for a Lorna Luft declaration from him, and we're not going to get one.

by Anonymousreply 70December 24, 2020 12:35 PM

R67 exactly. It reminds me of the Maria Schneider hysteria where everybody misconstrued what she meant by saying she felt “raped” on the set by the infamous “butter” scene in Last Tango in Paris and took it to mean she’d actually physically been sodomized with butter as lube by Brando.

by Anonymousreply 71December 24, 2020 12:45 PM

It's very hard for men to say publicly they were sexually abused.

From what Bjorn Andersen said,, It's very obvious he was sexually abused.

" But I am against the relationship of adolescents with older men. In my youth, I became a victim of such connections. Think about the mental state of the children involved in this ”.

"Adult love for adolescents is something that I am against in principle," he says. "Emotionally perhaps, and intellectually, I am disturbed by it - because I have some insight into what this kind of love is about."

Bjorn, who could not stand reminders of this period of his life, sued the writer. He accused her of promoting pedophilia and using his photo without permission.

"Death in Venice" and Luchino Visconti Bjorn Andresen prefers to forget once and for all. He could not forgive the despicable act of the director.

“My therapist helped me to understand myself. Together we analyzed my personal and professional life. He explained that Cannes was not the best place for a shy teenager. "

by Anonymousreply 72December 24, 2020 12:46 PM

R69 Thanks. Makes sense now. That's very sad. Parents of child actors should be very mindful of their kids since the industry is full of wolves

by Anonymousreply 73December 24, 2020 12:50 PM

R71 Helmut Berger (who a close friend to Maria Schneider), blamed Brando of ruining Maria's life:

“You can’t get your ass fucked with butter at the age of eighteen.”

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by Anonymousreply 74December 24, 2020 12:56 PM

LIAR!!! Luchino only had eyes for moi !!!!

by Anonymousreply 75December 24, 2020 12:57 PM

R74 She didn’t literally get her ass fucked by Brando. It was all acting. She said she felt violated as the character. There’s a difference!

by Anonymousreply 76December 24, 2020 12:58 PM

Some of the quotes come from this Guardian article. The more specific ones seem to be from a translation but I can't find an original source yet.

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by Anonymousreply 77December 24, 2020 12:59 PM

R76 Who knows! Helmut Berger knew Maria well, so he knows what he's taking about.

Brando was a psychopath who molested his own daughter. Not surprised if he really fucked his costar with butter.

by Anonymousreply 78December 24, 2020 1:03 PM

R76 Who knows! Helmut Berger knew Maria well, so he knows what he's taking about.

Brando was a psychopath who molested his own daughter. Not surprised if he really fucked his costar with butter.

by Anonymousreply 79December 24, 2020 1:03 PM

R77 I still get the impression he is more unhappy that the role turned him into a fantasy figure rather than showing people he could act. It seems he was more upset for appearing on the cover of the book because it would remind people of his youth which he is hoping to distance himself from. It sounds more like he disagrees with the sentiments of the film and believes Visconti created something that perhaps promotes pedophilia or an older man’s obsession with a young boy’s beauty. And on top of all this the role invited both men and women alike to see him as just a pretty face rather than an all round person.

by Anonymousreply 80December 24, 2020 1:08 PM

[quote] He should be grateful to have experienced what he did. Ungrateful brat.

*Chuckle* Ah, good ol' DL - it never changes :)

by Anonymousreply 81December 24, 2020 1:18 PM

R78 helmet doesn’t seem to be the most credible source. He seems desperate and unhinged. His autobiography is full of his name dropping and bitchiness. I take it all with a pinch of salt.

by Anonymousreply 82December 24, 2020 1:27 PM

helmut*

by Anonymousreply 83December 24, 2020 1:27 PM

Visconti made a film about child actors - and "stage mothers" - though it was a girl, in the film - Bellissima (1951) starring Anna Magnani. One of his few comedies.

by Anonymousreply 84December 24, 2020 1:39 PM

From what I've read in the interviews where some of these quotes come from, he was upset by the attention he was getting from Visconti, gays at the restaurant/club, the public, all of it. The whole "most beautiful boy in the world" thing really fucked him up.

Regardless of whether there was sexual abuse or not, taking a kid to a gay club so he could be gawked at is abusive.

I wish we could have some kind of link for the other claims like not being able to play with other kids on the set, but I'm coming up with nothing. OP has disappeared of course so no link from him.

by Anonymousreply 85December 24, 2020 1:42 PM

[quote]I think we're all looking for a Lorna Luft declaration from him, and we're not going to get one.

Does he like blue?

by Anonymousreply 86December 24, 2020 1:47 PM

Finally found that a lot of this comes from Dirk Bogarde's AN ORDERLY MAN, and Bogarde describes Andresen as dealing with Visconti's rages beautifully, not being hurt by them at all.

What's going on, OP?

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by Anonymousreply 87December 24, 2020 1:51 PM

Oh, boo-hoo. Talk about someone needing to make themselves out to be a victim. Grow some balls.

by Anonymousreply 88December 24, 2020 1:55 PM

[quote]I think we're all looking for a Lorna Luft declaration from him, and we're not going to get one.

R70 Sorry, what's a Lorna Luft declaration?

This dude needs to blame his parents, btw. If they were watching out for him he wouldn't have been going to a gay bar at night with his old homo director, at age 16. He shouldn't have been hanging out socially with older people without his parents around, at all. Not in the film business. And don't give me the one about people were more naive then.

by Anonymousreply 89December 24, 2020 1:56 PM

[quote] Regardless of whether there was sexual abuse or not, taking a kid to a gay club so he could be gawked at is abusive.

You think that was on purpose? This reads like an idiot needing attention and making something out of nothing thanks to a shrink putting it in his head. They probably had a wrap party at a club. Next!

by Anonymousreply 90December 24, 2020 1:57 PM

One wonders if R2 manages to not to chew his tongue while eating.

by Anonymousreply 91December 24, 2020 1:57 PM

[quote] This dude needs to blame his parents, btw.

You get to blame your parents up to the time you’re 30. After that it’s on you.

by Anonymousreply 92December 24, 2020 1:58 PM

[quote]I was RAPED!

by Anonymousreply 93December 24, 2020 2:00 PM

R92 Huh? He wasn't 30 when it happened. So when he turned 30 the blame for what happened when he was 16 doesn't suddenly become his. That makes no sense.

by Anonymousreply 94December 24, 2020 2:00 PM

R92 Huh? He wasn't 30 when it happened. So when he turned 30 the blame for what happened when he was 16 doesn't suddenly become his. That makes no sense.

by Anonymousreply 95December 24, 2020 2:00 PM

From what I read in his interview in the Guardian r90, yeah, it was on purpose.

by Anonymousreply 96December 24, 2020 2:02 PM

Being lusted after by older and more powerful people is an awful experience when you’re an insecure adolescent (m/f). It’s not flattering in the least; it makes you feel dirty and powerless. And dragging an inexperienced and straight boy to a gay club with your much older gay friends is vulgar and sadistic. Visconti was clearly a decadent aristocrat, who looked down on “ordinary” people.

by Anonymousreply 97December 24, 2020 2:03 PM

What did Lorna Luft declare? Anyone?

by Anonymousreply 98December 24, 2020 2:28 PM

When Bjorn says “I'm not homophobic. But I am against the relationship of adolescents with older men. In my youth, I became a victim of such connections." he might not be talking about the director specifically. Maybe some other older man or men?

by Anonymousreply 99December 24, 2020 2:45 PM

When twinks become embittered.

by Anonymousreply 100December 24, 2020 2:56 PM

It seems that all but one of you agree that Bjorn was "the most beautiful boy in the world". I think he was about as attractive as Leif Garrett.

by Anonymousreply 101December 24, 2020 3:06 PM

R101 He looked like a not very pretty girl, if that's what you think is the most beautiful boy in the world, which I don't.

by Anonymousreply 102December 24, 2020 3:08 PM

Tadzio in real life was Baron Władysław Moes, who was called Adzio - a 10 year old in Venice who captivated Thomas Mann, then 36.

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by Anonymousreply 103December 24, 2020 3:16 PM

R1 is a detestable cretin. We'll all be better off when that generation dies.

by Anonymousreply 104December 24, 2020 3:24 PM

He never said he was sexually abused by the director or any other men. He would have said that if he has been. Seems he didn't like the iron hand of the director over him and he was taken to a gay club at 16. These are hardly moments that would fuck up a fully functioning adult male for decades. Zzzzzzz.

by Anonymousreply 105December 24, 2020 3:31 PM

So is he insinuating that he was physically molested by Visconti or his cronies, or that he was improperly objectified?

by Anonymousreply 106December 24, 2020 3:45 PM

The latter, R106.

by Anonymousreply 107December 24, 2020 3:49 PM

R106 I think he’s upset that he’s forever recognisable for a piece of work which labeled him as “the most beautiful boy in the world” and he didn’t know where to go from there. He became disillusioned it seems very early because of his association with the masterpiece that is Death in Venice. The attention he got from men and women following the release seems to have unnerved him.

Visconti seems to have been a bit creepy with him in terms of a Hitchcock-like perfectionism but also for his seeming lack of sensitivity to the young man as a person and whether it was appropriate to take him to gay clubs and hang around a bunch of predominantly obnoxiously lusty men when he was still a teen and was not quite emotionally ready.

by Anonymousreply 108December 24, 2020 3:52 PM

Helen Lawson kicked many children in the psyche.

by Anonymousreply 109December 24, 2020 4:10 PM

[quote] dude u were awesome in that film! one of the great pieces of cinema....sorry u had a bad experience with pervy Visconti....

He can't hear you!!

by Anonymousreply 110December 24, 2020 4:17 PM

[quote]And dragging an inexperienced and straight boy to a gay club with your much older gay friends is vulgar and sadistic.

He was a VULGARIAN!

by Anonymousreply 111December 24, 2020 4:28 PM

The age of consent in Sweden is 15 years, and in Italy (where Death in Venice was filmed) it's 14 years, so Andresen was of age

by Anonymousreply 112December 24, 2020 4:29 PM

He looks like Marian Mercer.

by Anonymousreply 113December 24, 2020 4:48 PM

R113 This is hilarious, I can hardly type, I'm laughing so hard.

by Anonymousreply 114December 24, 2020 5:11 PM

[quote] There was also a cholera scare, though there are some significant differences between the book and reality as well, including the fact that Mann was actually 36 and the boy was 10, and Mann’s wife, who was also on the trip, claimed he didn’t follow the boy around, but that “the boy did fascinate him.”

All 10 year olds look more or less the same. Their gender is sometimes not even apparent yet. How odd that this work is considered iconic in gay literature.

by Anonymousreply 115December 24, 2020 5:12 PM

The boy in the story is quite a bit older than 10, and Aschenbach never even lays a hand on him in the story. How odd you would be censorious towards it clearly not having even read it.

by Anonymousreply 116December 24, 2020 5:19 PM

Tadzio is about 14, but the actual boy who inspired the story was 10. Here he is, center left, in Venice.

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by Anonymousreply 117December 24, 2020 5:32 PM

Bjorn Andresen was supposed to be BEAUTIFUL in Death In Venice. He wasn't even CUTE.

by Anonymousreply 118December 24, 2020 5:32 PM

A recent interview with Bjorn in Swedish about the film (with footage from his audition where Visconti tells him to take off his shirt). He talks about how he never wanted to act but his grandmother kept booking him auditions.

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by Anonymousreply 119December 24, 2020 5:36 PM

10 year olds are genderless which is why pedophiles don't have a preference for either gender.

by Anonymousreply 120December 24, 2020 5:39 PM

"That’s someone who had sex with probably hundreds of boys — not adolescents like Andresson, and they seemed to have adored him, which certainly presents a brain fuse blowing contradiction to the Y’alls Victims paradigm. An intractable dilemma."

Kevin Spacey, is that you? Btw, at least some of those boys complained about his attentions, you are misrepresenting facts by pretending they were all willing

by Anonymousreply 121December 24, 2020 5:44 PM

The inspiration behind the story has nothing to do with the merits of the actual story.

by Anonymousreply 122December 24, 2020 5:53 PM

Even if 16 is the legal age of consent in some countries, it is still too young to make informed decisions about sex. The older person will usually take advantage. Sounds like his granny was a stage mom with grayer hair.

by Anonymousreply 123December 24, 2020 6:10 PM

[quote] The age of consent in Sweden is 15 years, and in Italy (where Death in Venice was filmed) it's 14 years, so Andresen was of age

R112, now hold on there... That's NOT how it works in Italy (it's not that simple). The comparatively low "age of consent" applies as a general rule, but there are MANY exceptions where having any type of sexual relations with a 14-y.o. or 15-y.o. can STILL land the older person in prison.

For example, in Italy (AFAIK): "The age of consent [italic]rises[/italic] to age 16 when one of the partners is [italic]in a position of professional, financial or fiduciary influence[/italic] on the other (e.g. teacher, coach, legal guardian/custodian, employer, etc)". In terms of the work relationship & hierarchy, Visconti was the director and Andrésen was professionally subordinate. Therefore the age of consent in such a situation would likely rise to 16 automatically.

Also, if Andrésen was 15 and apparently abandoned by his parents (apart from his grandma) - he'd likely still need to have a legal guardian on set (he likely couldn't sign employment paperwork or get remuneration for the film without a legal guardian present). So there would be a fiduciary/custodian arrangement in place and someone on set or in Visconti’s entourage would have to act as a part-time guardian or chaperone. So that would also raise the age of consent upwards.

Basically, even in the 1970s in Italy - you couldn’t just sign up for a work position where you’re in charge of a harem of 14-year-old kids and then proceed to fool around with them, lol. That would likely fall foul of even retro Italian laws.

Moreover, the "age of CONSENT" (as the term itself implies) [italic]only[/italic] applies when both parties mutually acknowledge & agree that there was "consent". But (and that's a big "but") if, for example, an “of age” 16-y.o. says there were sexual relations but that they were [italic]not[/italic] consensual (e.g. if the kid says he was inebriated or high in the club, or that he was threatened or intimidated into engaging in sexual relations, or that he performed under duress, etc) - then, ooh boy, the older person is deep in trouble.

That type of situtation can potentially lead to a VERY uphill-battle court case for the older defendant. The court case will then revolve around the question of whether or not “consent” was actually given. IF the party claiming non-consent is a rather young teenager and, moreover, if there’s a huge gap in age & work status with the older party - then the kid’s young age can work against the defendant and create a legal assumption at trial that consent was not actually given.

by Anonymousreply 124December 24, 2020 6:23 PM

[quote] Where was his parents?

They "was" MIA, Rose.

by Anonymousreply 125December 24, 2020 6:39 PM

[quote] The illegitimate child was not included in his [father's] plans. He tried to persuade his mistress to have an abortion, but it was too late. Father in Bjorn's life absolutely did not take any part. When Bjorn was 6 years old, his mother was deprived of maternal rights [...] After 3 years, Barbara Andresen disappeared without a trace [...] At 14, Bjorn finally learned that his mother had committed suicide.

If that report is true, then that's a pretty bumpy start in life: dad wanted him aborted & became a deadbeat; mom killed herself when he was 14; and at 15 he became jailbait in an Italian club.

With that kind of dysfunctional upbringing, I'm actually surprised he didn't end up in porn...

No wonder he had 2 nervous breakdowns. But, in the absence of any further details from Andrésen, I doubt Visconti is the main person to blame for the state of his "psyche". If my dad had considered me a 'bastard offspring' and wanted me 'dead-on-arrival' and my mom offed herself - I'd be more fecked up by those events than by anything some director pulled.

by Anonymousreply 126December 24, 2020 7:05 PM

Well, we know why George Clooney moved to Italy, yes?

by Anonymousreply 127December 24, 2020 7:09 PM

Btw, I want to thank cheeky OP for bringing up this heartwarming story on Xmas Eve.

There's nothing that says 'festive, jolly spirit' more than an uplifting, wholesome story of deep family dysfunction, suicide, coded allegations of the film industry's sexual impropriety towards adolescents, followed by decades of nervous breakdowns and psychotherapy.

[bold]Merry Xmas everyone![/bold]

by Anonymousreply 128December 24, 2020 7:23 PM

[quote]Visconti was clearly a decadent aristocrat, who looked down on “ordinary” people.

For someone quite ugly and peasantly looking, he was really obsessed with beauty. I remember seeing the Leopard and thinking how I didn't care at all about the Prince's struggle. Visconti obviously was an arrogant, entitled, cruel asshole who made movies about things he cared about, not realizing ordinary people have very different struggles.

by Anonymousreply 129December 24, 2020 7:24 PM

It might be hard to understand for some people, but take a 14 year old Jennifer Lawrence or Lindsay Lohan to a strip club, it may freak them out (or not, who knows how worldly theyve been at that age)but theyve been in the business for so long, in a business that has been objectifying young girls for so long that it may be nothing to them (and again, Natalie Portman still complained). Now this kid was a 14 year old boy who didnt want to be an actor who was forced by his grandmother and probably clueless at everything else and transported to a foreign land hanging out with strange people. It may be a nothingburger in hollywood but that has to be terrifying for a sheltered clueless kid.

by Anonymousreply 130December 24, 2020 7:50 PM

[quote] transported to a foreign land hanging out with strange people

Yes, that's actually a big factor. I think it would have been a 'culture shock' for Andrésen as well. Since he was a Northern European (Swedish) teen from Stockholm - I'm not sure if he even spoke Italian or understood it.

Sweden and Italy are on the same continent, but they couldn't be more different. People in Sweden are generally more reserved in public - people in Italy are generally more 'handsy' and 'kissy' in public spaces. Southern hot temperament and all that. Even outside of abuse situations, you definitely get groped more in Italy - not necessarily in a malicious way, it's just a way more physical environment than Sweden.

It's like sending a 15-y.o. from Minnesota to Guadalajara.

by Anonymousreply 131December 24, 2020 8:15 PM

In the interview at R119 it appeared he didn’t speak Italian or french. Visconti would talk in french and Italian and a translator then interpreted it in Swedish to Bjorn. Wonder what that set was like with the mishmash of actors and crew.

by Anonymousreply 132December 24, 2020 8:22 PM

[quote]For someone quite ugly and peasantly looking, he was really obsessed with beauty.

Yes, it's quite impossible to understand. As a young man, he was quite the ugliest and most peasant-looking Duke imaginable.

BTW: did you type this in your house track suit?

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by Anonymousreply 133December 24, 2020 8:33 PM

IDK - some of us might say that he in his pic in R133 is gorgeous!

by Anonymousreply 134December 24, 2020 8:38 PM

Lots of photo trickery to make young Luchino not look like an ordinary Italian lorry driver.

by Anonymousreply 135December 24, 2020 8:55 PM

R125 fuck off grammar Nazi

by Anonymousreply 136December 24, 2020 8:56 PM

[quote] fuck off grammar Nazi

Tsk-tsk. You forgot the comma, R136. Though "fuck off grammar, Nazi" is actually a very apt description of your existential struggle with elementary literacy.

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by Anonymousreply 137December 24, 2020 11:03 PM

Wow, he was hot when he was young

by Anonymousreply 138December 24, 2020 11:09 PM

[quote] clearly a pedofile.

Who knew there were clerical positions.

by Anonymousreply 139December 24, 2020 11:28 PM

[quote]For someone quite ugly and peasantly looking, he was really obsessed with beauty.

I had a guy who worked in my bar like that. Ugly as sin; his face was dominated by a Texas-wide nose and huge bug eyes. Yet he was always ragging on people for being fat. He got so tiresome after a while.

by Anonymousreply 140December 25, 2020 2:07 AM

[quote] Visconti was clearly a decadent aristocrat, who looked down on “ordinary” people.

[quote] Visconti obviously was an arrogant, entitled, cruel asshole who made movies about things he cared about, not realizing ordinary people have very different struggles.

r97, R129, Visconti was actually leaning left-wing / socialist-lite. He was of course of the 'champagne socialist' garden variety, but still.

If you look at his full filmography, it suggests he [italic]did[/italic] care about 'the struggles of the peasants, proles & the hoi polloi’. Well, at least as much as a patrician son of a Duke who grew up in a castle could try to care...

Some people know him for his opulent movies about the upper class, with gorgeous production & set design, like "Il Gattopardo" ("The Leopard"), "Death in Venice", "Ludwig", “L’innocente” (“The Innocent”).

But his real gems were movies about the working class, like "Rocco e i suoi fratelli" ("Rocco and his Brothers", about a destitute Italian family of brothers who fell on hard times and had to resort to hardcore boxing and (as it’s insinuated) even male prostitution to make ends meet, which ironically became the inspiration for the Stallone Rocky boxing movies); "Ossessione" ("Obsession”, about a homeless bum and drifter who lives paycheck to paycheck); "Bellissima" (about a working-class mother pushing her daughter to try to attain silver screen stardom), "White Nights" (about urban loneliness, based on the short story by Dostoevsky), “La Terra Trema" ("The Earth Trembles”).

And even his decadent movies about aristo life actually (if you look closer) insightfully portray the gradual decline of the aristocracy (exactly because of its own decadence). “The Leopard”, “Death in Venice”, “The Innocent”, “Ludwig” - all these films show the nobility class in a state of increasing degradation and ruin, slowly becoming obsolete ghosts in a world rattled by socio-economic change. Most of the aristos in his movies end badly. Visconti correctly felt that the ‘old world order’ and rigid class system were self-imploding.

But Visconti was kind of simultaneously straddling both worlds. Being a socialist-lite, he was showing in some of his films the need for new social reforms to help ordinary workers cope with modern challenges like mass urbanisation & migration of rural people to inner city areas, etc. But being posh, he was at the same time still nostalgic about the Belle Époque era that was fading away.
 I don’t think he “looked down” on working-class people. His films show them in a very sympathetic light and promote empathy towards them. Though it gets a bit complicated because, as a rich Italian "Don" (his title was "Count [italic]don[/italic] Visconti di Modrone"), his focus on the working class might have been slightly fetishistic. Judging from the films, it seems he had a hard-on for working-class guys and rough trade (Massimo Girotti’s drifter character in “Obsession”).

by Anonymousreply 141December 25, 2020 4:17 AM

R141 It was said that "Visconti voted left and lived right"

by Anonymousreply 142December 25, 2020 4:18 AM

If he were gay he would have loved his experiences at the time Its only because he's not gay that he resents them. Sounds homophobic to me.

by Anonymousreply 143December 25, 2020 4:51 AM

[quote] It was said that "Visconti voted left and lived right"

[italic]Comme il faut[/italic], my dear R142, comme il faut. My fave expressions about left-leaning aristos & toffs are "Bollinger Bolshevik" and "Gauche Caviar", lol.

The Independent: "I was once called a "champagne socialist” despite the fact that I was [italic]clearly[/italic] holding a banana DAIQIRI!".

by Anonymousreply 144December 25, 2020 4:55 AM

[quote] If he were gay he would have loved his experiences at the time

Hmmm... As mentioned in OP's summary and recalled by Bogarde, the high-brow 'Method' shooting experience for "Morte a Venezia" seemed like a bit of a drag, especially for a restless young 'un.

Bogarde: “[Andrésen] was never allowed to go into the sun, kick a football about with his companions, swim in the polluted sea, or do anything which might have given him the smallest degree of pleasure.”

It seems like Visconti cock-blocked him when Andrésen was trying to chat up some females of the species as well. However, judging from set photos, Visconti (a heavy-duty bohemian smoker) did liberally allow the 16-y.o. teen his daily nicotine fix, so there's that at least, he got some modicum of fun.

by Anonymousreply 145December 25, 2020 5:38 AM

[quote] Dirk Bogarde: “He spoke almost fluent English, but in that curious MUTILATED manner used by AMERICAN disk jockeys […] Thus, almost every other word was punctuated with ‘Hey!’ or ‘I dig!’ or ‘crazy’, or most often, ‘man!’. Fortunately, as Visconti said dryly, he would never be required to open his mouth as Tadzio…”

Lol, Visconti was an honorary proto-DLer in spirit :).

by Anonymousreply 146December 25, 2020 5:41 AM

R141 you are right. I forget about the less decadent ones even though I love them too. And I agree that he hardly shows the aristos in a good light. One of my favourites by him is ‘L’Innocente’ which is definitely not showing aristos to be better than anybody else.

by Anonymousreply 147December 25, 2020 7:57 AM

And let’s not forget he portrays pedophilia and incest both unfavourably in “The Damned” through the Martin (Helmut Berger) character.

by Anonymousreply 148December 25, 2020 8:17 AM

R104 is so stupid and entitled that she doesn't know it is the responsibility at the DL for the OP to post a terrible, obnoxious, perverse response.

And R104, being so supremely superior in her "morality," condemns an entire generation to extinction, assuming something with the horror of a Trump about the poster's age.

I curse you, R104. And that means what it says.

by Anonymousreply 149December 25, 2020 2:38 PM

She may be prettier...

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by Anonymousreply 150December 25, 2020 8:34 PM

Romy Schneider's Sissi is playing on German TV over Christmas.

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by Anonymousreply 151December 25, 2020 9:47 PM

[quote] Now this kid was a 14 year old boy

No, he wasn't 14 years old when he was taken to the gay night club. By his own account, he was sixteen years old (see link).

If more actually happened to Andrésen when he was 16, I'll feel sorry for him--but I'd have to find out what that was. Just being taken to a gay nightclub at 16 to be leered at is hardly enough for me to break out the smelling salts. It would have made me uncomfortable, too, but it would not have traumatized me for life by any means.

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by Anonymousreply 152December 25, 2020 9:55 PM

[quote] Brando was a psychopath who molested his own daughter. Not surprised if he really fucked his costar with butter.

What the hell was he supposed to use, margarine?

by Anonymousreply 153December 25, 2020 10:10 PM

He had to save that for the celebratory fountain for special events, r153.

by Anonymousreply 154December 25, 2020 10:12 PM

The poor lad would have felt obligated to stay, would have been too scared to upset his director. Who knows how he was propositioned, maybe groped at the club.

by Anonymousreply 155December 26, 2020 1:57 PM

[quote]What the hell was he supposed to use, margarine?

[quote]He had to save that for the celebratory fountain for special events, [R153].

I'm guessing that ghee wasn't in the budget.

by Anonymousreply 156December 27, 2020 4:01 PM

According to our elderloungers the only appropriate thing to use back then was Crisco! R153

by Anonymousreply 157December 27, 2020 4:34 PM
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by Anonymousreply 158January 3, 2021 12:38 AM

[quote] Who knows how he was propositioned, maybe groped at the club.

May be, may be not.

by Anonymousreply 159January 3, 2021 12:40 AM
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by Anonymousreply 160January 3, 2021 8:45 AM

"Interestingly, there’s a new bio out on the author Norman Douglas, of the fab South Wind, called Unspeakable. That’s someone who had sex with probably hundreds of boys — not adolescents like Andresson, and they seemed to have adored him, which certainly presents a brain fuse blowing contradiction to the Y’alls Victims paradigm. An intractable dilemma."

You mean a child molester says what he did was perfectly okay and the kiddies all love it?!?!?

OMG! My victim paradigm became TRACTABLE!

TRACTABLE!

So which Datalounge kiddie rapist are you? Slimo? The scumbag formerly known as Erna? Shitheels who always creams when she hears about a boy being molested?

by Anonymousreply 161January 3, 2021 10:28 AM

r161 There are more than those two on DL.

by Anonymousreply 162January 3, 2021 10:46 AM

Never mind all these debates about who reads what into which.

Why has nobody observed that, according to R30's photos, Bjorn Andressen apparently grew up to be Bill Nighy?

Now there's an impressive body of work.

by Anonymousreply 163January 3, 2021 12:19 PM

The stunning Silvana Mangano as Tadzio's mother.

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by Anonymousreply 164January 4, 2021 11:30 PM

Upcoming doc about Björn Andrésen

[quote]The new film follows Andrésen, who was thrust to international stardom at the age of fifteen based on his iconic looks, as he wistfully reflects on his stardom. In 1969, Visconti traveled throughout Europe looking for the perfect boy to personify absolute beauty in the film, and a year later discovered Andrésen, a shy Swedish teenager whom he brought to international fame overnight and led to spend a short but intense part of his turbulent youth between the Lido in Venice, London, the Cannes Film Festival and the so-distant Japan.

[quote]“We filmed The Most Beautiful Boy in the World during five years in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Paris, Budapest, Venice, and Tokyo, following in Björn’s footsteps,” says director Kristian Petri. Co-director Kristina Lindstrom adds “It is a story about obsession with beauty, about desire and sacrifice, about a boy whose life was changed forever when the film director Luchino Visconti declared him to be the, ‘World’s most beautiful boy.’ Who was this boy and what happened to him? This film lets us listen to the boy’s own story. He, who was made into an image by others, an icon, a fantasy, which took over his young life.”

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by Anonymousreply 165January 23, 2021 6:44 PM

R165 Very interesting, looking forward to seeing this documentary.

by Anonymousreply 166January 23, 2021 7:46 PM
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by Anonymousreply 167January 25, 2021 6:53 PM

I don't know as much as I should about Visconti's career, but I've always wondered if Zeffirelli actually demanded or was offered sex by all of those beautiful young men he cast in so many projects -- Leonard Whiting, Michael York, and that other gorgeous young actor in ROMEO AND JULIET, Martin Hewitt and/or Ian Ziering and/or Tom Cruise in ENDLESS LOVE, the guy who played Cassio in Z's film of Verdi's OTELLO, all of those beauties he cast in the non-singing role of the Prince of Persia in various productions of TURANDOT, etc. -- or if he just deeply appreciated male beauty and liked having it around. Any specific stories?

by Anonymousreply 168January 25, 2021 7:28 PM

R168 Zeffirelli was a creep and an abuser.

Abuse Accusers Speak Out Upon the Famed Director's Death

Multiple men who allege they were victims of sexual assault by the 'Romeo and Juliet' filmmaker explain how the news of his passing at age 96 opens old wounds: "I can forgive him."

Actor Johnathon Schaech was clearing a tree that had fallen in his backyard in Nashville over the weekend when his phone began to buzz with messages. Italian director Franco Zeffirelli had died at home in Rome at 96, and Schaech’s friends were reaching out, worried about what news of the filmmaker’s passing might stir in him. One friend who texted was a Lutheran pastor from Long Island named Justin Vetrano, 45, with whom Schaech shares a painful bond: both men say Zeffirelli sexually assaulted them when they were young actors.

In January of 2018, Schaech became one of Hollywood’s few male #MeToo accusers when he detailed alleged encounters with Zeffirelli on the 1993 set of one of the director’s little-seen movies, the Italian drama Sparrow, to People magazine. Schaech said Zeffirelli sexually harassed and demeaned him during the shoot, and at one point entered the actor’s hotel room in Sicily while Schaech was sleeping and attempting to perform oral sex on him.

Vetrano, a former child actor now speaking publicly for the first time, says Zeffirelli sexually assaulted him in 1991, when Vetrano was 18 and visiting the home of his father's cousin, agent Ed Limato.

Reached by phone in Italy on Tuesday, Zeffirelli's son, Pippo, says of the men's allegations, "It's not a moment to talk about this. … It’s not the right time."

The men's #MeToo stories are similar to those shared by many actresses, and Schaech said he was inspired to speak up after Rose McGowan described an alleged rape by Harvey Weinstein (Weinstein has denied any allegations of nonconsensual sex). “He was brutal to me,” Schaech says of Zeffirelli. “I never believed in myself after that. It was like a life theft. But when he passed, I realized, I can forgive him.”

When he met Zeffirelli, Vetrano had been working as an actor since age 5, appearing in commercials and soap operas, with one of his most memorable spots a Jello Pudding Pop ad opposite Bill Cosby. Zeffirelli, then 68, was known for his lavish opera productions, popular film adaptations of Shakespeare and more-is-more approach to the arts. He had been nominated for an Oscar for directing the 1968 box office hit Romeo and Juliet and had directed a string of major stars including Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in The Taming of the Shrew, Brooke Shields in Endless Love, and Mel Gibson in Hamlet.

At 18, Vetrano moved from New York to L.A. to pursue acting full time, and moved in with Limato, whom he considered an uncle. Limato's friends introduced Vetrano to a glamorous and sometimes uncomfortably libertine Hollywood lifestyle, which culminated when Zeffirelli came to L.A. in 1991 to meet with Warner Bros. about potentially directing a Phantom of the Opera movie and stayed at Limato's house. "He was overly complimentary of me," Vetrano says. "He was a heavy drinker.

He attacked me one night, wouldn’t let me leave a room. He sexually assaulted me. It went on for five to eight minutes. I was completely frozen and shocked and couldn’t believe what was happening to me. When I pushed him away he said I was nobody. I would never be a true artist. As a young actor, I believed what he told me." Vetrano says he didn't tell anyone about the encounter and quit acting months later.

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by Anonymousreply 169January 25, 2021 7:35 PM

The broad outlines of Schaech's story are similar, from the flattery to the aggressive, unwanted advance. During the making of Sparrow, Schaech was 22, did not yet have an agent, and was working on the set of his first movie. Schaech says the director was a mercurial figure, alternately complimenting him and grooming him with extra attention — even taking him on a tour of the Vatican — and then disparaging him. “He would call me names, tell me I was a horrible actor, a horrible person, tell me I was just there for my looks,” Schaech says. “He did that to everybody, women too. But when [the sexual abuse] happened to me, I couldn’t believe it.”

Schaech, now 49, would go on to appear on a 1996 cover of Vanity Fair featuring leading men to watch, in a photo gatefold that also included Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey and Will Smith. Over the last 25 years he has worked steadily in film and television, appearing in That Thing You Do! and as a regular on the Showtime series Ray Donovan, but he says the experience with Zeffirelli dented his confidence and played a role in his developing addictions to drugs and alcohol.

Both men say that before the director died, they reached out to his sons, Pippo and Luciano, whom Zeffirelli adopted as adults. “I called to say to Franco, I’ve come to realize what you did,” Schaech says. “His sons said he’s not doing well. He wasn’t able to talk to me.” Vetrano says his calls were never returned.

Schaech was not the first man in Hollywood to allege that Zeffirelli sexually abused him. Screenwriter Bruce Robinson, who played Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet at age 22 and went on to write The Killing Fields, has also said that he was the target of unwanted sexual advances by Zeffirelli. In 1987, Robinson wrote and directed the movie Withnail and I, which features a lecherous old man he said he modeled on Zeffirelli. Zeffirelli never responded to Robinson’s allegations.

Schaech says that after he went public, five other men reached out to him via social media with allegations of abuse by Zeffirelli, including Vetrano. Schaech has since taped a public service announcement for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) and is participating in a SAG-AFTRA caucus on sexual abuse taking place Thursday in Los Angeles.

“I’ve become this guy,” Schaech says, of his activism since speaking out about Zeffirelli. “It’s been brutal. People call me brave. I haven’t worked since. But I’m definitely happier, not holding the shame inside.”

Both men say reading news coverage of Zeffirelli's death has been hard to accept. "To see how the world hails the maestro who’s passed and ignores what he did, it has been very frustrating," Vetrano says. "My moment with Franco Zeffirelli changed the trajectory of my entire life."

by Anonymousreply 170January 25, 2021 7:36 PM

What was the deal with Visconti and Helmut Berger? They were lovers and Berger went crazy when he died, even attempted suicide on the one year anniversary of his death.

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by Anonymousreply 171January 25, 2021 8:00 PM
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by Anonymousreply 172January 26, 2021 3:12 AM

R170 I wonder what Zeffirelli was like to C. Thomas Howell. He was a heartthrob at the time.

by Anonymousreply 173January 26, 2021 3:22 AM

You made me listen to Mahler's 5th yesterday, OP.

by Anonymousreply 174January 26, 2021 5:28 AM

Bjorn was a pretty boy for sure but not the "world's most beautiful boy".

by Anonymousreply 175January 26, 2021 12:53 PM

Birthday boy today.

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by Anonymousreply 176January 26, 2021 2:44 PM

[quote]Bjorn today

—Anonymous

I prefer Bjorn yesterday

by Anonymousreply 177January 26, 2021 3:08 PM

"Visconti was clearly a decadent aristocrat, who looked down on “ordinary” people."

" Visconti obviously was an arrogant, entitled, cruel asshole who made movies about things he cared about, not realizing ordinary people have very different struggles."

Anyone this stupid and ignorant about the films that Visconti made should die in a grease fire.

"Considering this, Visconti in neorealist fashion, decided to shoot the film ['La Terra Trema", about the struggles and oppression of Sicilian fishermen] in actual Sicilian locations and also to use local people as actors. Visconti believed these ordinary people could portray the truth about themselves better than actors assuming roles.

by Anonymousreply 178January 26, 2021 3:18 PM

{R171} Berger’s relationship with Visconti was initially one of a decades older powerful man with a young and pretty, pampered sex object. It was kept boy/ sugar daddy. Berger has admitted as much in his memoirs if you read between the lines, although it’s usually tempered with high-falutin’ talk of “art”. Others have certainly described it that way. I think the relationship did deepen into something more resembling a marriage as time went on. Berger describes Visconti as controlling and domineering. Quite frankly he makes himself seem like a vain little opportunist, whether intentionally or not.

Visconti even made a film “Conversation Piece” that is believed to be loosely based on his relationship with Berger, with Burt Lancaster as the stand-in for himself. One critic described it as Berger playing a “grown-up Tadzio to Lancaster’s Aschenbach”.

I agree that there needs to be more clarity on what exactly happened to Bjorn Andresen. Taking a minor to a club, while inappropriate, is not the same thing as molesting them. And by all accounts, Visconti was notoriously dictatorial on set. That said, it wouldn’t exactly surprise me to find out he did. Certainly Andresen seems to be describing trauma, but in coded language. But being expected to read between the lines shouldn’t then translate into a stinging indictment.

by Anonymousreply 179January 26, 2021 4:00 PM

28:50 in this clip Björn talks fondly of Dirk Bogarde when they did Death in Venice. He thinks Dirk probably felt understood and "invited" by Thomas Mann because they were both homosexual.

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by Anonymousreply 180January 26, 2021 7:34 PM

Only DL could have Luchino Visconti and Helmut Berger trolls.

by Anonymousreply 181January 26, 2021 8:30 PM

Dirk Bogarde wasn’t pleased when Visconti basically made The Damned centered around Berger

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by Anonymousreply 182January 29, 2021 3:02 PM

I am watching the documentary today @ 1 p.m. M.S.T.

Though I've never seen any of Visconti's films.

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by Anonymousreply 183January 29, 2021 6:09 PM

So, I just finished the Sundance screening.

There's really not much to the "gaysploitation" accusations or Visconti. The worst thing that happened was Visconti and crew brought underage Bjorn to gay discos and gave him free booze and drugs.

Most 16-year-old boys would love such opportunities and 16 is the legal drinking age in many European countries. The trouble with Andresen is that he didn't really want to be there -- he was just forced to participate in the entire film and publicity by his grandmother, so he has negative feelings about it.

But there was no rape or harassment! Most of the film concentrates on the dark chapters of Andresen's life -- losing his mother at a young age and losing a child to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It does NOT spend most of its time on the gay stuff.

Most of the pearl-clutching about "gaysploitation" comes from Andresen's current girlfriend, who is shocked to learn that Andresen was given free drugs and "kept" by rich, gay men for a few years in Paris. Andresen mentions he was given 500 francs per week as an allowance and lived in opulent apartments provided by sugar daddies. But neither Andresen or the film say he had sex with the daddies. Andresen says he regrets the years spent that way now. But he didn't mind them then.

The GF was also shocked at screen test footage Visconti took of Andresen in his underwear, saying "children shouldn't be treated like that."

But there were no reports of rape, abuse or even sex. Maybe Andresen was just a llittle gay-for-pay in the '70s and he's now ashamed of it in front of his new girlfriend and documentary cameras.

by Anonymousreply 184January 29, 2021 9:18 PM

Has anyone pointed out that, first of all, "Death in Venice" is an awful movie-- a crude, at times hysterical, rewriting of Thomas Mann's novella--which is--dare I use the word?--Apollonian....it's certainly not a slam-bang melodrama.

To my eye, Visconti wanted to turn Tadzio into Greta Garbo--I mean, look at the hair! He was an old queen acting out his fantasies....but that's not news..

This scandal, or whatever it is, is from two generations ago. Does anyone actually care? I certainly don't.

by Anonymousreply 185January 29, 2021 9:50 PM

[quote] a crude, at times hysterical, rewriting of Thomas Mann's novella--which is--dare I use the word?--Apollonian...

Can you name any refined movies made from Apollonian stories?

by Anonymousreply 186January 29, 2021 10:15 PM

In fact, R185 can you name any Apollonian movies?

by Anonymousreply 187January 29, 2021 10:17 PM

As a 16 year old boy he should not have been asked to take off his shirt. What was the point? And he should definitely not have been taken to a gay disco at that age. But this life long trauma does make me think there's a lot of other things going on.

It's an uneven film but some of it is quite beautiful and nothing is sexuality explicit.

by Anonymousreply 188January 29, 2021 11:14 PM

“This scandal, or whatever it is, is from two generations ago. Does anyone actually care? I certainly don't.“ r185

You say you don’t care but you wrote a three paragraph response?

by Anonymousreply 189January 30, 2021 12:33 PM

R185 This is DL, We talk about gossip and stories from 10 generations ago!

by Anonymousreply 190January 30, 2021 4:52 PM

[italic]“Too much, too soon,” is a familiar lament applicable to many flash-in-the pan showbusiness personalities, and so it was for this teenager back in 1970, when just the sixth boy the eminent Italian director Luchino Visconti looked at for the key role of Tadzio in his film adaptation of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice turned out to be The One.

Early scene-setting reveals Andresen as an aging man in borderline dire straits, looking shockingly decrepit at only 65 and sporting a full head of long hair stretching well down his back. He looks like a more handsome Gabby Hays. Smoking away, he shares a filthy apartment overrun with countless bugs and you can only wonder where he’d be today without a Scandinavian social support system. We learn right off the bat that, lacking proper parents, he was largely raised by a grandmother.

All the more fortunate, then, that he should be discovered by one of the most famous directors in the world. No end of behind-the-scenes footage spotlights the 15-year-old, seemingly carefree Andresen cavorting on the beaches of Venice while the director applies himself to filming the story of an eminent artist who, at the end of his life, becomes fixated on the youngster he encounters on the Lido. It was a story that had preoccupied Visconti for years and the film gratifyingly offers generous bits of time to the imperious maestro both in action on location and speaking about his subject.

At the same time, the film can’t help but note that, from the director on down, “The whole crew was homosexuals.” Visconti laid down an edict that, “No one was to look at little Tadzio,” and went out of his way to stress that the story was “neither sexual nor erotic. It’s a higher form of love. Let’s say, ‘Perfection within love.’ ” We see the director showing his discovery precisely what to do in a given shot, and the boy complies, willingly and without difficulty.

There was a London royal world premiere in March 1971, with Queen Elizabeth in attendance, followed by the Cannes Film Festival two months later, where, starting with the gala post-screening party toplined by Visconti and leading actor Dirk Bogarde, the widespread “gay lust” for the beautiful boy took off. This was followed by an equally intense reaction to him in Japan, where he cut pop records, appeared in many commercials and became the nation’s “first idol from the West.” Another section alludes to an arrangement in the mid-1970s where a man set up the 21-year-old in a beautiful Paris apartment and 500 francs per week pocket money. “I felt like some kind of wandering trophy,” Andresen says, but all the while “I wanted to be somewhere else, and be somebody else.”

Despite the acclaim and attention stemming from Death in Venice, Andresen didn’t appear in another film until 1977, and he never acted in anything you’ve ever heard of until taking a small role in Midsommar two years ago. His life, from all the evidence, is a sad affair, and the film only partly suggests why this is the case. His face, surrounded by the abundant hair, has a ravaged beauty, but he’s almost painfully thin. He tends to hold back and not assert himself in public or group situations.

More than that, he seems afflicted with demons that have nothing to do with his one-time celebrity, and the filmmaking team of Kristina Lindstrom and Kristian Petri gently tries to lure them into the open, with limited success. The man is reticent on some issues and won’t address others; it’s clear there are some demons he has either put to rest or simply doesn’t want to confront.

It is, in the end, quite a sad story. No one, including the subject, draws a direct link between Andresen’s one moment of fame to the despondency of his later years, but one feels there still might be some pieces missing, that the early highs had something to do with the later dramatic lows. And the unasked question is whether the subject feels his life would have been happier if he had never met Luchino Visconti and been considered the most beautiful boy in the world.

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by Anonymousreply 191February 2, 2021 4:42 PM

More about the doc

[bold]When did you start to talk about Death In Venice?[/bold]

KP: That took maybe three years… He had this huge feeling of being exploited once by a filmmaker [Visconti] and we didn’t want it to happen one more time, even if our goal was different. We wanted him to feel his story counted… We kept talking about Death In Venice throughout the process and we got different answers… It started off as, “The film that destroyed my life,” but after a while [it became], “Well maybe it’s not that simple – of course, I got things out of it, too.”

[bold]You found footage from the Cannes press conference in 1971 shortly after the world premiere in London. Visconti is teasing Andrésen, who doesn’t speak French and doesn’t understand what the press corps are laughing about. It was brutal. [/bold]

KP: I was in shock when I saw it the first time. We found the material in an archive in Rome… He’s saying [Andrésen] is not beautiful anymore. He just crowned him and [then] he takes away everything.

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by Anonymousreply 192February 4, 2021 3:49 AM

[quote] Another section alludes to an arrangement in the mid-1970s where a man set up the 21-year-old in a beautiful Paris apartment and 500 francs per week pocket money. “I felt like some kind of wandering trophy,” Andresen says, but all the while “I wanted to be somewhere else, and be somebody else.”

So it alludes to him being a kept boy for some time in Paris at least. Well I will have to see the documentary. To me I’m not sure if Visconti is to blame for his situation or if it simply makes good documentary material for the art house crowd to stir up some controversy. It would seem lack of parenting was mostly to blame and perhaps inability to find his own path in life career-wise which is something a lot of young people suffer from.

Reading the review at r191 has made me want to see the documentary but it still sounds a little thin to me. But as they say, everybody has a story to tell.

by Anonymousreply 193February 4, 2021 5:16 AM

I only wish somebody took me to a gay club when I was 16!

by Anonymousreply 194February 4, 2021 4:58 PM

R194, Me too, I would've loved it! What a waste.

by Anonymousreply 195February 4, 2021 10:08 PM

That's why straight men hate gay men.

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by Anonymousreply 196February 16, 2021 2:28 AM

R196, fuck off homophobic trash.

by Anonymousreply 197February 16, 2021 2:40 AM

R197 = Pedophile

by Anonymousreply 198February 16, 2021 3:01 AM

One thing I didn't realize until this documentary is that Bjorn Andresen played that loony, old man who sacrificed himself to the cult in MIDSOMMAR by jumping off a cliff!

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by Anonymousreply 199February 27, 2021 3:56 AM

The CopyCat Thread Thief is trying to copy information from this thread to a totally redundant, new thread about the same subject he's trying to pass off as his own idea.

AGAIN.

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by Anonymousreply 200February 27, 2021 5:24 AM

Cool and creepy Criterion cover for the film:

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by Anonymousreply 201February 27, 2021 4:32 PM
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by Anonymousreply 202March 3, 2021 2:14 AM

[quote] To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Luchino Visconti’s adaptation of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, we republish this report from our Autumn 1970 issue in which Margaret Hinxman visits the film’s set and talks to its star Dirk Bogarde.

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by Anonymousreply 203March 7, 2021 12:08 AM

On set

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by Anonymousreply 204March 7, 2021 1:10 PM
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by Anonymousreply 205March 12, 2021 4:03 PM

r201' pic reminds me of the Dr. Who Villains called The Weeping Angels.

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by Anonymousreply 206March 12, 2021 4:13 PM

Language needs to be more specific. The title of this thread is: Luchino Visconti Abused Bjorn Andresen. This could mean anything from, "Visconti was nasty with him during rehearsal" to "Visconti held him down and anally penetrated him."

by Anonymousreply 207March 12, 2021 4:27 PM

On set

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by Anonymousreply 208March 24, 2021 6:59 PM

Premier of "Death in Venice" in London, March 1, 1971. From the upcoming doc The Most Beautiful Boy in the World.

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by Anonymousreply 209April 18, 2021 2:15 PM

[quote] I wonder if he was up for a role in Ludwig, perhaps the role that went to John Moulder-Brown. It seems he’s the type that Visconti would have worked with again.

Does anyone know if Moulder-Brown is a homosexualist? He didn’t come across that way as a very young actor, but I just finished watching the 73-minute documentary on the Deep End blu ray, about the making of the film, and JMB comes across as a TOTAL flamer. Yet during his conversation in the documentary with Jane Asher, he’s extra keen to talk about how lucky he felt to get to make out with Asher, get naked with her, and how he had to hide his boner, etc. It comes across as inappropriate and overcompensation, and as I said, he seems REALLY GAY now.

Anybody know what his deal is?

by Anonymousreply 210May 3, 2021 5:03 AM

New trailer:

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by Anonymousreply 211June 18, 2021 8:35 PM

The doc will be released in UK / Irish cinemas on 30th July.

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by Anonymousreply 212June 19, 2021 9:07 AM

Looking forward to watching it.

by Anonymousreply 213June 20, 2021 2:13 AM

The Leopard was an overlong bore, beautiful to look at but boring as hell, and I didn't care at all about what happened to Lancaster's character who was Visconti and what happened to aristocracy in Italy in the last century.

by Anonymousreply 214July 4, 2021 7:29 AM

Whatever the level of abuse, Visconti took an already vulnerable and damaged teenage boy and made things worse for him.

by Anonymousreply 215October 23, 2021 4:36 PM
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