Television - Death comes to Venice - Chickens and Botticelli
A crime that takes place in the world of art is "Death Comes to Venice" on Saturday evening (13. July) at 8:15 pm on First. Anna (Alwara Hoefels), a physiotherapist working in Vienna and mother of the 11-year-old autistic Paul (Filip Wyzinski), is unwillingly drawn into investigating in Venice. And her investigations lead into an unclear art scene.
Anna must go to Venice because they found her husband Lukas (Roman Binder, "The Vienna Crime") dead there - his body was found in a canal. Lukas was a respected restorer, most recently for a city museum with Botticelli's painting "Portrait of a Lady." He was also gifted in replicating artworks.
Was the Dead a Forger?
The museum director (Julia Stemberger, "Sisi") now accuses the dead man: From his atelier, Lukas had only returned a convincing fake to her house. But where is the valuable original from the Renaissance?
Regarding Lukas' death in the water, the policeman Santo (Rudy Ruggiero) assumes it was a typical accident of a drunk foreigner and closes his case. Paul, however, accuses the melancholic Anna, played by Hoefels, of being responsible for her husband's accident. Their relationship had become difficult recently.
So the widow, who had sent a mysterious art postcard to her husband just before his death, decides to take the investigation into her own hands. Meanwhile, Rafael (Christopher Schaerf, "The Dead from the Bodensee"), a smart art dealer and best friend of the deceased, wants to take care of Anna and her son in Venice.
A multitude of tricks
The film, skillfully staged by crime expert Johannes Grieser according to the script by Stefan Wilds, in which the heroine meets both the garrulous hens in her husband's rundown apartment and the wealthy art collector Mr. Lee (Hyun Wanner) in his palace, impresses with its wealth of details and insider knowledge from the art scene. Although a culprit (too) early arouses suspicion, the feelings of those involved remain complex, finely portrayed by their actors, until the resolution.
- Anna was watching the television news about her husband's death in Venice from their apartment in Vienna.
- The Italian police in Venice were not interested in investigating Lukas' death as they considered it an accident involving a drunk foreigner.
- Back in Vienna, Anna received a TV news alert about a suspicious art crime in Berlin, which reminded her of her husband's case.
- The German media picked up the story of Anna's investigation and started featuring her on their nightly news programs.
- While in Venice, Anna visited the famous art gallery in Italy, which displayed Botticelli's painting "Portrait of a Lady" and was once restored by her late husband.
- During her investigation, Anna received a mysterious tip-off from a fellow art enthusiast in Germany, who had seen a potential lead on a TV program about art forgeries.
