In director Luchino Visconti's lush and haunting version of Thomas Mann's novella, an artist obsessed by his ideal of physical and spiritual beauty jeopardizes his own life to be near the object of his desire. Composer Gustave Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde) travels to a Venice resort to escape personal and artistic stress. But peace eludes him as he develops a disturbing attraction to an adolescent boy, Tadzio (Björn Andresen). Aschenbach becomes obsessed with the boy’s youth and physical perfection, realizing that the child represents an ideal he can never match. However, their lives are both threatened when a sudden outbreak of cholera sweeps across the city.