The Paper's reporter Cheng Xiaojun
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Italian director Visconti's classic film Death in Venice. Recently, a documentary called "The Most Beautiful Boy in the World" was released in the United Kingdom and other places, focusing on the Swedish actor Björn Andrésen, who played the beautiful teenager in "Soul Break Venice".
Taking the opportunity of the release of the documentary, Anderson, who has disappeared for many years, also came forward to give an interview to the media, bluntly saying that "Soul Break Venice" ruined his life.
Recent photo of Bourne Anderson
"He has a special charm"
Co-produced by Swedish documentary filmmakers Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri, the world's first beautiful teenager followed Bourne Anderson for five years, plus a wealth of archival footage and new material, revealing the swedish actor's decades-long life story, once known as the "world's most beautiful teenager".
Poster of "The World's First Beautiful Boy"
Half a century later, Anderson, 66, still lives in his hometown of Stockholm. He grew a large white beard, coupled with a long gray and white flowing hair, which really had the feeling of a fairy wind and bone; and the beautiful teenager who used to be exquisite with a hint of evil charm had long disappeared.
When asked what the Visconti director, who died decades ago, would want to say to the famous director if he came back to life and reappeared in front of him, Anderson replied bluntly: "I will say to him, 'Fuck you!'" He said that throughout the filming of Venice, Visconti did not care about his feelings." But that's the nature of the film industry, where the proportion of fascists and scum is much higher than elsewhere. "Visconti also belongs to this kind of cultural predator, who can sacrifice anyone, anything, for the sake of their work." ”
Visconti (left), director of Venice, is on set with Anderson
Born in Stockholm on 26 January 1955, Bourne Anderson was born out of wedlock and had not seen his father since childhood. Anderson's mother was uninhibited and often uncertain, and he was basically raised by his grandparents. When he was ten years old, his mother suddenly disappeared completely, and it was later learned that she had committed suicide and died.
From an early age, Anderson's grandmother wanted him to become a star and took him everywhere to auditions and performances. In the Swedish director Roy Andersson," who later became famous, in his debut film "Swedish Love Story" that year, Anderson was one of the main actors. Not long after, his grandmother took him to the Visconti "Soul Break Venice" crew to audition. "I thought it was just another very simple summer job experience." Anderson recalls that unexpectedly, it completely changed his life.
Stills from Soul Break Venice
The two documentary filmmakers searched the archives of Italian television and finally searched for audition clips for "Soul Break Venice." In order to find the right actor, Visconti had already auditioned in many parts of Europe and interviewed countless young actors until he met Anderson in Sweden.
Through the documentary "The World's First Beautiful Teenager", we can see that Anderson was slightly embarrassed during the audition, mechanically completing the instructions issued by the director of Visconti to his assistant: smile, take a few steps, and take off his shirt. Margareta Krantz, the casting director who recommended actors for him in Sweden, recalls in the documentary: "When this blonde boy appeared, I was standing next to Visconti and it was obvious that his whole being was suddenly excited. The boy had an extremely delicate beauty on his body, and his face was also very photogenic. He has a special charm, a feeling of looking at the weak wind, and this is precisely the quality that will look particularly beautiful on film. ”
"People call me a beautiful teenager, but they really don't like it."
Based on the novel of the same name by German writer Thomas Mann, according to the story setting, 14-year-old Polish teenager Tacchio, played by Bern Anderson, is the ideal embodiment of beauty, which makes the composer Aschenbach, who is in crisis in his life, fascinated and unable to help himself.
In 1983, Dirk Bogard, the actor who played the composer Aschenbach, published his memoir, An Orderly Man, in which a chapter also mentioned Anderson: "In him there is an almost mysterious beauty... Throughout the filming, in order to maintain his skin color and manners, Visconti made strict rules for him: no sun exposure, no football, no swimming in the sea. In short, as long as it is something that brings him pleasure, even if it is only a little fun, it is not allowed to do. ”
According to Anderson's own recollection, he was almost always alone during filming, and Visconti strictly stipulated that the crew members could not disturb Anderson unless necessary. "But after the movie was released, he dragged me to a gay club to play." Fifty years ago, as soon as "Soul Break Venice" was released, it immediately caused a sensation, and director Visconti labeled Anderson as "the world's first beautiful teenager" was quickly absorbed by the media and the public, making him famous overnight, and everywhere he went was the focus.
First, on March 1, 1971, Anderson attended the world premiere of "Venice of Broken Souls" in London, England, and Queen Elizabeth and Princess Anne of the United Kingdom both arrived.
On May 23, he went to Cannes with the crew to participate in the film festival, and the madness of the star chasers and paparazzi completely broke him down. "It's like a swarm of bats, surrounded by you, it's really a living sin." Putting a sixteen-year-old teenager on the job of promoting the entire film is a bit of an excuse. "After the summer, I went back to school and someone had already given me the nickname 'Angel Lips.'" People call me a beautiful teenager, but I, who was experiencing an hormonal explosion of adolescence at the time, really didn't like that name. ”
Anderson's photograph for Ann magazine
In August 1971, Anderson visited Japan with the crew to promote the october release of "Soul Break Venice". After the styling creativity of Lolita style master Jin Zigong, he put on a sailor suit and shot a cover special for the September issue of the women's magazine "An'an", quickly conquering Japanese women and children.
In December of the same year, Anderson visited Japan again, and the agency had arranged a number of commercial advertisements for him, including Meiji chocolate. In addition, the popular Anderson also recorded two singles in Japan, which became synonymous with "beautiful teenagers" in the minds of the Japanese people, including Keiko Takemiya, the founder of the American shonen manga as the predecessor of the Tammy manga, many manga artists have become his fans, and Riyoko Ikeda's manga "Rose of Versailles" that began serialization in 1972 is said to have drawn inspiration from Anderson's handsome appearance.
The protagonist of Keiko Takemiya's Poem of Wind and Wood, Gilbert, is said to have been inspired by Anderson
"Aging is not ugly"
In his twenties, Bourne Anderson lived in Paris for a time and became a "booty" for some middle-aged men to show off. He lives in an apartment they have paid for, has no worries about food and clothing, and constantly receives gifts and love poems. However, about this experience, Anderson himself is not willing to mention too much. "He didn't want to mention it, so we didn't want to dig too hard." Petri, one of the directors, said, "But he did say that he had basically no regrets in this life, except for his time in Paris." ”
In his subsequent career as an actor, Anderson was reluctant to try any more roles that would lead to misunderstandings about his sexuality. In 1983, he married the writer Suzanna Roman. In 1984, they had a daughter; two years later, they had another son. Unfortunately, when his son Alvin was nine months old, because of an accidental death, Anderson blamed himself for this, not only contracted the problem of alcoholism, but also the marriage with his wife came to an end.
Cover of Jermaine Greer's Pretty Boy
In the end, it was devout religious beliefs and a love of art that helped Anderson out of life's predicament. Occasionally, he still has to speak out to remove the label of corruption. In 2003, the famous Australian feminist writer Germaine Greer published a book called "The Beautiful Boy", the cover of which used anddrew Anderson's young photographs, although he was granted the copyright by the photographer, but he did not know Anderson himself in advance, which made him very angry for a while, and he did not expect that decades later he could not change people's stereotypes.
Today, Anderson continues to appear in various film and television works. Three years ago, he played a supporting role in the horror film A Midsummer Night's Horror: an old man who jumped off a cliff and was completely smashed in the head. "Being killed in a horror movie is every boy's dream." He laughed. In addition, he insists on music creation, touring with the band to which he belongs every year. As can be seen from the documentary, the apartment he and his girlfriend live in is not luxurious, but it is still warm and full of life.
"I don't have anything I can't put down now." Anderson said in an interview, "It was one afternoon in 1992, and I was sitting in the kitchen and watching my demons jump out one by one. I named them all, numbered them, and told them: You've been fired! They represent all kinds of anxieties, fears, and memories in my life. Today, only the memories are there, but they don't scare me anymore. At my age, there wasn't much to scare me. "When asked why he agreed to make the documentary, he said it was simply because he and the two directors were friends." I'm not trying to get the world's attention back to me, and I've had enough of that fifty years ago. ”
However, in the eyes of the two directors, being able to make this documentary is actually a very meaningful thing for Anderson himself. "This time, as a public figure, he regained the right to tell the story of his life back into his own hands." Director Petri said, "In addition to the so-called Visconti experts, the critics, you can also listen to what Anderson himself said." ”
"People in the world love to link beauty to youth, but I think that's a big mistake, and that's one of the big problems at the moment." Eyes and faces are the windows of the soul, with the growth of years, with the accumulation of pain brought by life, people's eyes and faces will become more and more beautiful, aging is not ugly. Anderson said.
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe
Proofreader: Luan Meng