Philosophy @ the Movies: Death in Venice

According to tradition, the members of the Florentine Platonic Academy used to get together every November 7^th to celebrate Plato’s birthday. This year some modern Platonists (aka the students enrolled in PHIL 60) will be gathering on November 7^th to celebrate Plato’s birthday by consuming birthday cake and watching Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice. Visconti’s creative adaptation of the novella of the same name by Thomas Mann is set in the Grand Hotel des Bains in Venice with a lush film score of the Adagietto from Mahler’s 5^th symphony, a highly-acclaimed performance by Dirk Bogard, and some echoes of portions of Plato’s Symposium and Phaedrus. Do come celebrate with the Platonists on Wednesday, November 7^th, at 7 p.m. in Caldwell room 105.