The Most Beautiful Boy in the World - BBC4

Death in Venice is such a beautifully moving film which the music of Mahler adds perfectly.

I will be sure to watch what became of the strikingly beautiful boy.

Thanks for posting this Chestnut

I caught the end of it last night and would like to watch it properly. Need to check what channel it was on though as I flit between BBC4 and Sky Arts a lot….

Sorry….just seen BBC4 ….

….I need to watch Misha and the Wolves, too. So much to watch!

another example of exploitation.
and such an unfortunate life, with early bereavements, and nobody really looking out for him as a youngster.
i found it quite moving that the public servant at the archives seemed to show him more consideration than some of his elders and their contemporaries had.

I didn't see this, but read about him fairly recently. I loved Death in Venice, a really beautiful, atmospheric film. The opening sequence, Dirk Bogarde floating into Venice with the Mahler soundtrack wowed me right from the start. Young Bjorn was a beautiful boy but from the article I read life wasn't great for him afterwards.

It was shocking and totally heartbreaking the way he was exploited, then used and abused by corrupt people. The interview process for the movie brought tears to my eyes. He was treated like a piece of meat. It reminded me of the way slaves were bought and sold, just dreadful.

TerriBull

I didn't see this, but read about him fairly recently. I loved Death in Venice, a really beautiful, atmospheric film. The opening sequence, Dirk Bogarde floating into Venice with the Mahler soundtrack wowed me right from the start. Young Bjorn was a beautiful boy but from the article I read life wasn't great for him afterwards.

That is an understatement Terribull. I'm afraid you won't watch the movie through the same eyes after seeing this. I don't think I'll be able to watch it again.

I haven't seen it for years Chestnut that's my enduring memory of when I last saw it, that and particularly of Bjorn right at the end standing on the Lido sands staring out into the sea, with Dirk Bogard looking on in a deckchair, hair dye running down his temples whilst Cholera was raging through Venice and people dropping like flies.

I'll try and catch up with the film about him on I Player. I think the tragedy of child actors ruined by unscrupulous people around them has always been there since the inception of cinema, look what happened to Judy Garland. Many young lives ruined forever by exploitation.

Yes, I watched it and it was so sad. He was indeed a beautiful young man. I get the impression that huge success when young often ends sadly as young people are plunged into an exploitative world of fame and entertainment and don't yet have the tools of emotional maturity and experience to deal with the problems which inevitably come their way.

He was only 15-16 when he made the movie. The director, the star Dirk Bogarde and the whole filming crew were all gay. They were all drooling over him during filming but told to 'look don't touch'. Once the filming was over he was thrown to the wolves at the Cannes Film Festival, where he was drugged and drunk at the party. Horrendous to think what that boy went through, just a plaything for those corrupt people. He was only an innocent child of 16.

I started watching it but my tv is too small and I struggled with the subtitles so I’m going to watch it on my iPad.

SPOILER ALERT
Have just finished watching it. Got a bit confused about the child that he lost as it said ‘3 months after Elvin died’ so I thought he’d lost two sons. I don’t think the documentary made clear that he’d continued to act and was an accomplished musician. It did make it seem as though his whole adult life had been one of alcoholism and depression. Having said that it was spellbinding. I’ve seen many films that were a waste of time and I’ll never get that time back but I’ve yet to see a bad documentary. How they find all the archive footage and put it together in such a way as it draws you into that world is beyond me. How many people have audio tapes from their childhood? I have actually got the dvd if Midsommar which I haven’t got round to watching yet.

I agree it was difficult to follow and work out who the people were. Some viewers might give up, wondering what was going on. I was glued to the set, just trying to follow the path of his life. So much sadness, with both his parents gone (and in a horrible way) then his baby, whose death he was responsible for. And the only person who could have supported him and advised him, his grandmother, was more concerned with her own fame and profile than his welfare. What an awful woman. She should have been actively protecting him from the start but didn't seem to care what happened to him just so long as he achieved fame and fortune.

I found it chilling that people were lining up their boys to be ogled at by Visconti who, they said, was openly gay at a time when it was very much frowned upon and usually kept a secret. Having said that I’m so glad that we now live in a society where being gay is totally accepted. I wondered if the poor baby died because he lived in a house full of cigarette smoke, something that is known contribute to sudden infant death syndrome. I think the documentary probably raised more questions than it answered. I wonder if the autobiography of Dirk Bogarde that I have mentions the film?

I thought the baby died because he was so drunk he fell asleep and smothered him. He said he was totally out of it.
Homosexuality was not illegal back then, I think it was made legal in 1967. But I agree the interviews were chilling.
I imagine the film would be mentioned in the book because it was one of Dirk Bogarde's main films. I thought the film was quite creepy at the time, the way they made the boy keep turning towards him, almost as though he was encouraging him. I think that film has a lot going on under the surface and hearing Bjorn's story has made things clearer.

He blamed himself but the death certificate said sudden infant death syndrome. I just assumed that, if he’d not been drunk he felt he could have saved him? What was the babies mother doing putting the baby on a bed next to a drunken man though? It’s a very haunting documentary: I can’t get it out of my mind. There’s something so vulnerable about boys if that age.

I agree this programme has haunted me.
Just read this (quote):
Rumours circulated in the United States at the time of the film's release that Andrésen was gay (as the role demanded that he appear to exchange romantic glances with the protagonist, and on another occasion, be kissed and caressed by another teenage boy). Andrésen emphatically denied this and later recounted his discomfort at being forced by director Luchino Visconti to visit a gay bar, where he attracted the attention of older men.

I’ve just watched it thanks to your prompt Chestnut. Bjorn is the same age as me apparently. Goodness what a tragic life for him. A mother who was ‘boho’ and abandoned both he & his half-sister at a young age, which scarred both of them as she was never referred to again by extended family. Then a weird grandmother who actively pushed for a famous film star grandchild and entered poor 15y old Bjorn into a talent scout screening. (Sadly, he won).

Then to be drooled over and manipulated by the famous (gay) Italian director. And what on earth was the ‘wholly homosexual film crew’ all about? My god. That could never happen these days. Can you imagine the job adverts or interview process? “So, tell me Christophe - something about yourself”. ... ‘well Sir, I’m 22y, homosexual and ...”.
“YOU’RE HIRED” ‼️

And the awful screen test. That anxious, uncertain ‘beautiful boy’ gets asked to take his clothes off for the camera. He looks achingly embarrassed. Where on earth was his guardian, a responsible adult?

Well, well.. Then the film itself. Granny uses her sharp elbows and to her delight secures a cameo part (ensuring she has stars in her eyes and can’t see what’s in front of her bladder nose).

After the film was made, premiered in front of HM The Queen and Princess Anne, then Cannes., poor Bjorn is pretty much abandoned. Eventually grandma says to him aged 17y “why don’t you go to Japan and cash in there with your fame & good looks?”

Such a normal reaction eh from a grandma? “Off you pop love, on your own, you’ll be fine, see a bit of the world why don’t you?”

Then came marriage and two babies with his beautiful young wife. But Bjorn by then was a damaged soul. Into drink and drugs. Smothered his 3 month old baby boy who had been placed in bed next to him whilst ‘out of it’ - what kind of mother would put a 12 week old baba in bed with a drunk it beggars belief.

Such tragedy, regret and an achingly sad 50y for Bjorn since ‘discovery’. I was very moved by this film. I will be thinking about it for a while.

Sorry for this long post. As you can tell it affected me and quite unexpectedly.

Thank you Chestnut. I wouldn’t have watched it or even known about it without reading this thread. It wouldn’t have come up on my radar at all.

Some people have such shit lives for their visit don’t they?

If he’d smothered the baby it wouldn’t have said sudden infant death syndrome on the death certificate though. Also he had made another film prior to Death in Venice and attended a school that seemed to prepare children for the theatre. I’m not saying he wasn’t exploited: he was, just as many young people are exploited ( just look at that poor Russian skater) but I get a feeling that he might be using the documentary for self publicity. Or, the documentary maker is also exploiting him?I’m probably totally wrong here. As I said the documentary raises as many questions as it answers. The images of him in the film are so breathtakingly beautiful: there are some faces that you can’t stop looking at. I’m going to watch it again. His hands reminded me of John Taverners. And I’m going to watch Midsommar (although I’m staying at my daughters looking after her dog and on my own and I think the films a bit spooky!)

Bjorn said his son’s death certificate stated ‘sudden infant death syndrome’.
But he knew it wasn’t. Too coincidental.
A drunk druggie in bed next to a 12 week old baby?
That’s why he can’t live with himself.
Beyond tragic.

And when you add up all the abject sadnesses in his life?
No wonder he struggles. I would too. I’d howl every day.
But one cannot turn back the clock.
A life cannot be rerun.

I’m so very grateful for my life and the many blessings I was given.

I was also deeply affected by this programme and couldn't stop thinking about it. The loss of innocence, the taking of a young life and corrupting it like that, just awful. I thought the movie itself was unsettling, I felt that at the time all those years ago. Now I'm not sure I could watch it again knowing what went on behind the camera.

Trouble is I want to watch the movie now: not sure that I have actually seen it. I know we used to see Fellini films at the cinema but certainly didn’t go to the cinema to see Death in Venice. Might have seen it on tv. But, at the same time don’t want to see it. I’m so glad that Chestnut did start this thread though. As I said I caught some of it while I was channel hopping but then fell asleep. It did say somewhere that the images of the boy are as beautiful as anything you’d see in an old painting which is why they stay in your mind. Another documentary that had this sort of effect on me was Blackfish, about the Orca that was kept in captivity in Florida and killed someone. Then there was the one about the chimpanzee that was brought up as part of a family. And a young girl who was found dead in a flat. She had been very popular and had lots of friends but none of them seemed to notice she was no longer around. I love the Burns brothers documentaries as well. There must be a tried and tested formula for making documentaries I suppose but they mesmerise me. Going to watch Misha and the Wolves and see if that draws me in…..

I keep away from anything involving animals as I find it too upsetting. I realised that long ago when my eyes welled up watching 'Lassie' !!