The most beautiful boy turns into the most sorrowful man: a documentary about the young star of “Death in Venice” and ruinous fame
In 1970, the Italian classic Luchino Visconti traveled the world in search of a teenage actor for the film "Death in Venice" - the director was looking for not just a boy, but for "the very embodiment of perfect beauty." Finally, in Stockholm, he met a shy blond boy, Björn Andresen, and turned him into a world star overnight: "the most beautiful boy in the world" visited all the major parties of cinema bohemia, fangirls with scissors hunted for his curls, and in Japan, a 15-year-old boy was declared the first pop idol from the West. 50 years later, Björn Andresen, a man with a long, Gandalf-like gray beard and an aloof gaze, is barely making ends meet in a dirty social apartment and trying to get his life back to normal for the last time. Directors Christian Petri and Christina Lindström revise semicentennial archival records, leaf through the yellowed press, and listen to Andresen's comments while trying to understand how early fame can fracture a person's fate and why celebrity status in the film business is considered much more important than mental well-being. After the promotional tour of "Death in Venice", the young actor, who had lived through his mother's suicide right before the filming, was left unwanted by Visconti. Björn was dumped to the wayside of the film industry as a one-role actor, unsuccessfully started his musical career, and lost his little son in the 80s, then he slipped into depression for a long time. His equally sad documentary portrait does not condemn the old celebrity world, but asks a rhetorical question - could Andresen be much happier if he had never been "the most beautiful boy in the world"?
Original language: English, French, Italian, Japanese, Swedish Subtitles: Belarusian | English