‘The Most Beautiful Boy in the World’ Sells to Numerous Territories Via Films Boutique

Björn Andrésen now. He's only 66.

Do they have meth in Venice??

He looks closer to 80.

Rough life being beautiful.

That’s sure over.

I've seen better looking.

He's still got that youthful glow.

I can understand why Visconti chose him for the role of Tadzio. He looked like an angel. He had a perfection to his face that reminded me of Garbo. I wonder what it was like for him to be, at the age of 15, the object of all that attention. I imagine both men and women were clamoring to get him into their beds. His brief stardom obviously damaged him. He's still "trying to find himself."

I think I saw him in "A Bigger Splash" sitting next to David Hockney at an event. H was wearing the sailor suit.

The full trailer. It looks really interesting.

He's fug and androgynous

Is there full frontal nudity?

Hmmm, I'm thinking about a re-make. Perhaps I should think about casting?

[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.

Too fuckin old.

Audition clip:

If R9 thinks the subject of a movie called "The Most Beautiful Boy In The World" was "fug" then he's either moronic or blind. Maybe both.

[quote]Rough life being beautiful.

How would you know?

Never got this kid's appeal. Usually Visconti had exquisite taste in boys (Delon, Berger). But this one always struck me as weird looking and while I'm sorry he had a hard life, I don't feel like pinning it on Visconti all these years later feels justified.

He has a weasel face R15. Sorry I don't get the appeal

He looks like Jodie Foster in Alice doesn't Live Here anymore.

I see there are more blind people at R17, R18 and R19. Visconti CHOOSE him to play the role in Death in Venice because of his stunning beauty, you blind dingbats! If you don't see it then you're in a very odd minority.

By the way, Jodie Foster has a face like a horse's ass when compared with his.

Review

There was no need to start a third thread on this topic.

He looked like a girl, beautiful I guess, but never handsome.

Also...there is no need to be a hall monitor R22.

Personally, I like masculine features. I don’t find him “beautiful” at all. He looks sickly.

In Datalounge kindergarten today we have learned that beauty is subjective. Squawking "he's not all that" is dreary and pathetic. Come back tomorrow for more shocking revelations.

Where were his parents? Why didn't they protect him from Visconti, who I'm sure didn't act responsibly around Anderson.

Maybe people saw beauty differently 50 years ago. The kid is not attractive, and certainly not the most beautiful.

At least he never ended up on the Neverland Ranch.

R26 He grew up fatherless to a mother who abandoned him and would later on commit suicide. He was raised by his grandmother who wanted to make him famous. He found out his father’s identity in the documentary.

He looked sort of like Andrea Casiraghi, the prince, except with thinner lips and lighter hair.

I, too, think he looks better now than he did back then...but I don't mean that in an insulting way.

Those of you that are throwing shade are fat and upset.

"The kid is not attractive, and certainly not the most beautiful."

He had the face of an angel, which is why he was chosen for the role. I feel sorry for you and many others on this thread. Being blind must be awful.

I saw more beautiful guys walking around the mall today.

I seriously doubt R32 saw "more beautiful guys walking around the mall." And who goes "walking around the mall" anymore, anyway? I think he's an old blind man cruising for some action.

He looks like a young Melanoma Trump.

Visconti was maddly in love with Delon but Delon was straight...

This young boy fits perfectly with what he was looking for for the role. Blond, angelic, young and... beutiful! Denying it can only come from people who are totally embittered

^beautiful

New trailer

Aren’t they overblowing his notoriety just a tad?

Aren’t they overblowing his influence just a tad?

Looks a dime a dozen.

So was he diddled or something? Why is this of interest to anyone?

Movie directors can be really fun people! They want a performance out of their actors, long-term consequences be damned! De Sica used to get his child actors to cry by telling them they were doing a really bad job, then when he'd gotten the tears he wanted out of them he'd pat them on the head and tell them what nice kids they were.

Overrated. Pretty but bland.

Montgomery Clift as a teenager was more beautiful.

Yuck. Me thinks the title is meant to be ironic.

It bears repeating: Visconti chose him for the role of a boy who is supposed to epitomize beauty BECAUSE HE WAS BEAUTIFUL, you dumb twats! If you don't see that then you're rather fucked up.

- - -

Dont get the point though. He had 1 movie, is somebody blaming that 1 movie for how fucked up he is now?

Seems like a sad story. I also never found him attractive in the film, in part because the hair seemed too over-the-top, even as a period style. And there's a weird scene where the boy seems to sexually challenge the main character that felt ugly and jarring and that I did not recall from the novel.

This thread is overrun with a sad, lonely troll who is obsessed with this AWG's "beauty." Not everyone finds this incredibly average-looking young man beautiful, get over it.

R49 is blind and an imbecile. 'Average looking?" Everybody should look so "average." He was so average he was called "the most beautiful boy in the world." He was idolized for his stunning good looks. But then there's a lot of dumb clucks on Datalounge who declare even the most gorgeous of Hollywood icons "fugly" and "not very attractive." A sad, lonely bunch they are. I guess it makes them feel better to put extremely attractive, sought after people down, they themselves being nonentities nobody would look twice at.

R50, some of us just don't see him as attractive. I didn't care for him in the film - he gave a performance that came across as somewhat creepy and uncharismatic. That's due more to Visconti, of course, but there you go.

Calling him the most beautiful boy in the world is a line of PR, not the result of some sort of a global vote.

“I’ve never seen so many fascists and assholes as there are in film and theatre,” says Andrésen. God, ain't that the truth.

The brunet boy who played Tadzio's friend is the one I found attractive and appealing; he was cute and had a masculine quality. Andrésen was too pretty and feminine.

He played the old guy who jumped off the cliff in Midsommar

I was more beautiful at his age. No longer. Sad.

No thanks. I like dudes with hair on their cock.

"I was more beautiful at his age. No longer. Sad."

"No longer?" You never were, you ridiculous twat. You are very sad.

R50 You seem to have an awful lot invested in this.

New interview with Björn

The Most Average Boy in the World.

He should have worn sunscreen and moisturizer. He looked truly ancient in Midsommar.

What's his issue? Is he mentally ill?

Well, he's obviously disturbed, supposedly by being in that movie and becoming an object of lust for both men and women. at the age of 16. Becoming a famous, adored, sought after person when you're that young (and he was adored, sought after and famous simply because of his looks) mightily screws up some people. I guess he was one of them.

^Well, he wasn't born on top of a dung heap in Egypt (as Andrew Holleran put it) and my sympathy is not unlimited.

BEAUTIFUL?

This PASTY, SCRAWNY, ANDROGYNOUS creature wasn't even good looking.

R66 is a troll or really stupid. REALLY stupid. Or blind. Blind and stupid.

It’s interesting he was so big in Japan. He looks like something from an anime.

Delon has admitted to homosexual dalliances so he was not straight. And I wouldn't be surprised if he slept with a number of directors early in his career.

You just know Visconti had a piece of that.

The problem with delon is I get the impression the fantasy would be shattered pretty quickly. From things I’ve read he doesn’t seem to be the most charming of men. He had very good looking years though in the early 60s but was sort of grown out of them pretty early by the late 60s. Visconti for sure got him during his peak I doubt anything happened with Visconti seemingly conflicted and delon being delon. I’m sure with Visconti it was more likely a case of body worship rather than sex.

My personal preference for a Visconti male is the enigmatic Marc Porel who died tragically in the 80s. I’d love to know more about him.

It must be a generational thing because all I'm seeing is Britney Spears, but with better hair.

The eldergays are still creaming their Depends to him, but everybody else is like "whatever, he wasn't that cute."

Another pic.

Another big hit movie from the 70's that would never be made today. finally saw it a few weeks ago and damn, it just meanders. Bogarde goes to the beach and stares at the boy. Bogarde goes to dinner and stares at the boy for two hours and ten minutes.

[quote]It bears repeating: Visconti chose him for the role of a boy who is supposed to epitomize beauty BECAUSE HE WAS BEAUTIFUL, you dumb twats! If you don't see that then you're rather fucked up.

It bears repeating: HE WAS BEAUTIFUL to Visconti. Don't know where you got the impression we must all bow to his taste. I don't find the kid beautiful at all.

I find him angelic in his beauty but sexless. As in if I were in his class in high school I would not have had a crush on him.

He looks like dead eyed Chloe Sevigny.

R74- He/she looks like Helen Hunt who herself is a LESBIAN.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

“Different strokes for different folks.”

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

"The eldergays are still creaming their Depends to him, but everybody else is like "whatever, he wasn't that cute."

"Everyone else?" You don't speak for the masses, sweetheart. And if you think he looks like Britney Spears I think you should get that cataract operation you've been putting off, you poor twat.

He looked like Britney Spears r80. Put your reading glasses on.

He's really not beautiful though. Just a very cute blonde teenager. I can see he fit the European beauty standards (pale skin, red-cheeked, blond, blue-eyed, slender) but even then he wasn't the exemplary of it. So yeah, good-looking but not the most beautiful of all time. He also looked better as he aged tbh.

R82, he looks much better with short hair.

R72 Looked him up and yum. He is certainly my definition of beautiful.

R50 Why do you give a shit whether or not other people on this site don't find an underage boy beautiful? Beauty is an opinion. Like it or not. You act as if we're personally attacking you.

ANY skilled director working with a good cinematography can find a boy who attracts the eye through a good movie. Truffaut chose well with Antoine Doinel. Not a beauty, just another compelling French boy next door who could hold the eye and did so through many movies, growing up.

He looks like what Hadrian’s boytoy Antinous would look like if he was a methhead.

R85,do you believe that black is white and night is day? Because that's the reasoning behind the distain for Bjorn Andresen's youthful good looks: insanity To deny that he had exceptional good looks is to fly in the face of reality. People out of touch with reality are very irritating. And beauty is not an "opinion", it's REAL. It exists for some people. To say someone's looks don't appeal to you is one thing (George Clooney is considered quite handsome, and I can understand why, but he does nothing for me);but to deny that someone who is obviously very good looking ISN'T...well, that's just asshole-ishness or bad eyesight. And saying he looked like Jodie Foster or Britney Spears! That sound like shit you'd hear middle schoolers say on a playground.

I saw a photo of Greta Garbo (I guess the haters don't even know who she was) at age 18 that reminded me of Andresen. She had those same delicate, symmetrical, well defined features. I guess the haters will say Garbo was "fug", too.

r88 don't waste your time on trolls and imbeciles.

Must be an eldergay thing, not wanting to let go of their long-lost youth. Dude wasn't all that.

R88 He was a cute kid not beautiful. Kids aren't beautiful because they're still developing. It's creepy for an adult to proclaim a young adolescent to be "the most beautiful". In the case of Greta, girls physically mature faster and she was 18, so basically grown. Either way, it's weird you're hung up on the falsity that beauty is objective. Why do you care if we find him attractive or not? Every culture has it's standards and everyone has their tastes. You clearly have a Eurocentric and archaic taste.

"Kids aren't beautiful because they're still developing."

What a dumb thing to say.

Yes, I'm very attracted to unformed bodies.

R88 They're yanking your chain, and you keep responding. Don't be so gullible.

So "Call Me By Your Name" is just a loose remake of "Death in Venice" with the main difference being that the main character in the latter actually gets "lucky." Blech.

" Dude wasn't all that."

"Dude?" You don't sound too bright.

It's ok r96 just stay stuck in the past where dudes like this were considered hot.

It's a beautiful film. But I don't see why Visconti had to see him with his shirt off at the audition. The boy wears a swimsuit of the period which covers the upper torso. Creepy.

He always reminded me of a beautiful, porcelain, androgynous angel. Asexual to most but perhaps perfect for a pedophile. Sad that he had such a tough life.

R72, Marc Porel was one of the great lost faces of that generation - died too soon. Beautiful man. Was a character in Fulci's infamous "Don't Torture a Duckling" and was mesmerizing even as a nerdy priest.

^Porel looks uncannily like Juliette Binoche. He could have been her twin brother.

Review

I wonder how blatantly the boy was propositioned after the film came out, assuming the director wasn't sticking it to him already.

Death in Venice is a beautiful film. Visconti is one of the greatest filmmakers. I very much want to see this. But it sounds like he was abused by his family as well.

I wouldn't touch that thing.

R106 I know, he's a little mature for you. That shower set on "Apt Pupil" really spoiled you, didn't it?

I wonder what Andreson would look like if he were cleaned up, without the awful beard and long hair? I think he would probably be an attractive man.

A dark documentary indeed, I enjoyed it but it made me sad.

"... Sells to Numerous Territories Via Films Boutique"

Is DataLounge suddenly The Hollywood Reporter?

He looked more like a girl than a boy when he was young.

Never found him good looking.

His features are too weak.

I like moral strength and upbeat personality.

He looks totally depressed then and now.

Not attractive to me.

There's total confusion on this thread between real life and performance. Visconti was looking for a kid who could portray the character he wanted to put on film, which involved a lot more than having a certain look. Among other things, the kid needed to have basic skills like the ability to show up every day, pay attention and consistently do what he was required to do, which anyone who's worked with 15-year-olds will tell you is not that easy to find.

I wonder what Helmut Berger has so say about all this.

Ew, to each his own. Looks like the lovechild of Anne Heche and Andy Dick.

Review

Like Corey Haim, Brad Renfro and Aaron Carter. Bjorn was "the most beautiful boy in the world" for chickenhawks. But I don't think Bjorn was actually molested. I can understand why he's annoyed till this day. Who would want to be associated with a film about pedophilia no matter how well done and artful it was? I mean Brooke Shields will never live down her early art films.

He didn't know his father, his mother abandoned him and then committed suicide and his grandmother made Rose Havoc look like Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama.

Visconti was one of the better things to have happened to him.

[quote] I mean Brooke Shields will never live down her early art films.

Actually Brooke Shields has been forgiven for a lot of things she's done: nudie "art" photos at age 10, playing a baby prostitute in "Pretty Baby", the teen sex films "The Blue Lagoon" and "Endless Love", the Calvin Klein commercials, bearding for Michael Jackson. She's done a lot of stupid things, like promoting herself as a sex symbol while she was still a child and a young teenager. It wasn't all her awful mother's fault; Brookie always did anything for fame and money and publicity.

The Most SCRAWNY PASTY ANDROGYNOUS Boy In The World

He looks a lot older than his years. I've always said "if you're into fair-skinned blondes, get them while they are young because aging kicks their ass."

[quote] He looks a lot older than his years

If he got rid of the long hair and the old man beard he probably would look quite presentable. He has fantastic bone structure.

As a young adult, he reminds me of a young James Spader.

His mother was mentally ill, and it looks like he inherited her tendencies. Becoming a sex symbol at 16 no doubt fucked him up, but he might have had a hard life even without the film.

He was a great-looking young adult but always looked sad.

One of John Water's favorite films of 2021

[quote]Visconti was maddly in love with Delon but Delon was straight...

Let's say 'european'. Google John S. Barrington who took this shot and others.

[quote]Who would want to be associated with a film about pedophilia no matter how well done and artful it was?

Stanley Kubrick, James Mason, Shelley Winters, and Peter Sellars?

Jean-Jacques Annaud, Tony Leung, and Jane March?

Richard Eyre, Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, and Bill Nighy?

Where can I stream this wanking material?

He looked trans. I’ve known much more handsome blond boys than that.

Just started watching. It looks good, but already it's doing that thing that too many movies and especially documentaries do now, which is keep the scary/ominous music pounding nonstop. I wish that trend would end.

Five minutes in, that shot of Visconti licking his chops at the sea of young boys come to audition.

Italians of a certain age love Nordic looks - it figures he would pick a Swede.

R59 That was a good review, thanks for posting. Did anyone actually watch the film? I did last weekend and it has stuck with me. He's an extremely charismatic and compelling character, both in his youth and now. The film is beautifully done.

One little detail I found interesting is, when he speaks English he has a 100% American accent. You would never know he's Swedish. I hope he does some more acting.

R68 Well as the film shows, he was THE major early inspiration for anime artists in Japan.

Honestly though, unless there are accusations of molestation or rape, what will this documentary REALLY offer in terms of content?

It should be titled- The Most SCRAWNY, PASTY , ANDROGYNOUS Boy In The World.

Visconti was searching for a specific look and he was chosen because he had the androginous look he was searching.

Visconti said he looked like the "angel of death", androginous, pure but also with a decadent feel. He wasn't searching for a sexy man. If i look at him i feel like he belongs to a Leonardo da Vinci painting

Maybe his looks are outstanding from a Mediterranean’s point of view, but in Northern Europe or the US his looks would be considered unremarkable.

R139 Actually he was considered outstanding from asian point of view, he is considered the inspiration behind the "bishounen" trend in japan,beautiful and feminine men.

R140- I hope you are not referring to LADY BOYS.