Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.
Does Visconti's overwrought adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella actually warrant the masterpiece status it's routinely accorded? Of course not, as anyone coming to this re-released print with an objective mind will surely realise.
It's the portentous tale of Gustave von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde), a widowed German composer who arrives in a plague-ridden Venice. Hoping to rest and relax, he instead becomes bewitched by the beauty of young Polish boy Tadzio (Björn Andrésen).
Hardly riveting stuff, especially given it unfolds at a funereal pace in hazy soft focus and is over-reliant on its sublime Mahler soundtrack for emotional impact. Bogarde's off-puttingly mannered central performance doesn't help either, and the stilted flashback conversations between Aschenbach and a musical colleague are an annoyance.
That said, Visconti and cinematographer Pasquale De Santis impressively recreate an overcast, fin-de-siècle Venice, in particular the decorous Hotel Des Bains and its private beach. Sumptuous, then, but curiously insubstantial.
"Souls-like meets Fable" is all this indie RPG needed to say to meet its Kickstarter goal, but it added in a Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood nod just for good measure
Gorgeous JRPG homage Clair Obscur sells out its collector's edition months before launch, dev says it didn't think "the demand for our physical editions would be so high"
Turn-based RPG Clair Obscur dev says all-star voice actor lineup includes people like Andy Serkis and Baldur’s Gate 3 alumni by accident: "He was like, 'Isn't that Clive from Final Fantasy?'"
