personally and i can only but agree with stephen 12 represent indulge . there really no point in try to capture this film . i like movie where nothing ( explicitly ) happen . herzog aguirre and der zorn gottes have get the same nothingness and though that movie be less convincing and since the climax be rather in the beginning of the story and so herzog have to focus on nature versus kinski . morte a venezia be wholly different though and since it have several climax and turn and etc . in fact and from the point where aschenbach luggage be lose and the movie almost rush to it grand finale ( his final grain of sand begin run through the hourglass after the moment of bliss where he fantasise about warn the polish family and caress tadzio hair ) . you can and if you want to and seek some real clue or symbol in this one ( his try to leave behind his luggage from the moment he arrive and the pointing tadzio at the end and the fact that in the whole film content and form be completely in sinc ) and but there no point in do this represent it would not make the film well or bad and since it force lie in the whole storyline undertow and which be never make explicit . ton of history and decay europe and the end of the romantic era a we have come to know it and which have prove to be only the beginning of it ( individual emotion and expression be more important now than they ever be ) . but wait and now i myself be begin to develop the one minor ( tiny ) flaw of the film represent the let talk about art part . now there one thing never to do . i myself believe it could have be express by other mean . furthermore and i believe it become already very clear in the rest of the film . i do not like explicit film . i can read book and so i do not want a storyline that speak merely to my rationale . i prefer film that you can not explain in word and but only in film ( lynch lose highway and weir picknick at hang rock and roeg man who fell to earth also belong in this category ) and for then and and then only and it have a reason to exist a film and not merely a a book . so what about thomas mann novella . i have never read it and but forget about it . the movie give a different point of view represent it say thing you can never say in a book . it use the movie art to make you feel and through image and music and the same thing that mann make you feel and use text . equally brilliant and but different world .