At first, Visconti was encouraged by the silence in the studio’s big screening room when his film ended. “The full house,” he reported, made not a sound at the final scene in which the black hair dye runs down Bogarde’s makeup-encrusted face and his character, Gustav von Aschenbach, dies on the beach alone. Had he stunned the executives with the film’s absolute brilliance? Then someone in the screening room actually said something: “Well, I think the music is great. Just great. It’s a terrific theme. Terrific! Who was it did our score, Signore Visconti?”

Visconti said the music had been written by Gustav Mahler.

“Just great. I think we should sign him.”

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