The Tragic Curse of Being the 'Most Beautiful Boy in the World'

[Jilly_in_VA]

The story of the “Most Beautiful Boy in the World” unfolds like a dark thriller.

It’s a story about the perils of child stardom. It’s a cautionary tale about the exploitation of young stars and the commoditization of beauty. It’s a horror story about the stripping of one’s agency at a young age and the reverberating effects that has on the rest of their life. It’s a glimpse at the generational cycle of trauma, guilt, and depression, and the seeming impossibility of feeling one’s own worth.

Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World is a documentary entry in the beloved “Where are they now?” genre, albeit one of the more curious and unusual ones we’ve seen.

In 1970, when Björn Andrésen was 15, he was personally cast by famed Italian director Luchino Visconti in the film Death in Venice. The role of Tadzio required a vessel to live up to the description written by Thomas Mann in the novella from which the film was adapted: “...having honey-coloured hair, like a god in greek mythology. And the boy is not really human—rather, an angel of death.”

When the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival a year later, Visconti proudly heralded Andrésen “the most beautiful boy in the world,” a coronation that made international headlines and turned the young teen into an overnight star and, to his great discomfort, sex symbol.

The Most Beautiful Boy in the World marries archival footage from the time with new interviews with Andrésen, now an aging actor and musician in his sixties living in Stockholm. (In a great piece of trivia, Andrésen played the community elder whose disturbing, grotesque death is the turning point to madness in the 2019 film Midsommar.)

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-tragic-curse-of-being-the-most-beautiful-boy-in-the-world?ref=home

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. I watched Midsommar on NF not too long ago. Trippy ass movie, ultimately I found it interesting

but unsatisfying.

This movie sounds worth watching.

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. Haven't watched it

because I basically do not like horror movies, other than the classics. This movie, however, I might. It sounds terribly sad, though.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

3. It's a pretty low-grade 'horror movie', it's a little scary but it's more trying to 'say something'

using the 'horror milieu' if you will.

I'd say it's more of a creepy thriller with some horror-like components. It's kinda like a 70's horror movie you might find in syndication a couple years after it was in cinema, with a couple of edits of mild gore removed. It's maybe as scary as, say ... The Omen?

It's worth checking out, I could see someone really liking it, even if I didn't particularly.

[Jilly_in_VA]

4. I hated "The Omen"

Really hated it. One of my kids made us get it at Blockbuster. Ugh. The last horror movie I even halfway liked was "Harvest Home" and that was because I'd read the book, which was better anyway, although Bette Davis was great. I think it was a made for TV movie though.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. I didn't mean to say it's 'like it' as much as say 'it's about that scary' (talking 70's Omen here)

It has a bit more gore/grossness to it, but it's nothing too crazy. It's not even close to the level of the TV show 'The Walking Dead', put it like that.

Harvest Home (or the 70's version of another Tryon book, The Other ... a movie I saw at like 8 yo and it freaked me out!) is a decent comparison in terms of 'scariness'.

It's really much more a creepy movie than a horror movie is what I'm saying

[Jilly_in_VA]

6. I think I'll pass

We watched the Icelandic series "Katla" not long ago and that was about as scary as I care to get any more.

[msongs]

7. death in venice is a wonderful movie starring dirk bogarde a wonderful brit actor who never

made it big in the usa. most of his movies are highly watchable