Sundance 2021: The Most Beautiful Boy in the World
sundance 2021At the world premiere of his 1971 hit Death in Venice, director Lucino Visconti gave his young actor Björn Andrésen the title of being the most beautiful boy in the world. The public took to this title and elevated Andrésen to almost mythical levels, which forever took a toll on Andrésen and his life even as he grew up. Kristian Petri and Kristina Lindström's documentary The Most Beautiful Boy in the World gives Andrésen a platform to share his story and reveal some of the true horrors of being a child star.
Even for those unaware of Andrésen's journey from unknown orphan to global megastar, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World does a rather fantastic job at sucking the audience into his world and showing all the gross and problematic layers. From the immediate focus on the sexualisation of him as a child to the lack of a childhood he was able to have being paraded around on a global tour, Andrésen's life and struggles feel authentic and easily create a sympathetic image for the individual. It is incredibly easy to transfer one's opinion of Andrésen's life from one of celebration to one of tragedy speaking to the basic effectiveness of the film and its goals.
Unfortunately, the film can struggle to find meaning past this basic level. For all the various pieces of Andrésen's life that is touched upon, the film never really finds much of a purpose or deeper thesis. The Most Beautiful Boy in the World is a film that is quick to expose its subject’s misery but doesn't give the audience much to gain from the story overall. The idea of child actors going through sacrifice is hardly a new idea and, whilst the film is effective at presenting this, it never quite finds a reason as to why this is important. This can cause the film to feel rather dull and boring despite its already shorter 93-minute runtime. There also are a number of conversations throughout the feature that simply feel lackluster. Specifically in the film's discussion of the LGBTQ+ community; it walks a fine line between representing the community as having dark sides within it and painting the entire community out to be antagonists in the story. This is just one example of a conversation that feels rather sloppy and clearly needed more development within it.
If there is one thing to truly impress regarding the feature it would be the cinematography from Erik Vallsten and editing from Dino Jonsäter and Hanna Lejonqvist. With an incredible amount of footage that truly is able to show Andrésen's life with strong filmmaking and emotional competence, this is clearly a leading cause for why the movie worked even half as well as it did. Rather than simply telling the audience a story, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World allows the audience to feel the story for all its ups and downs.
Whilst it is clear that The Most Beautiful Boy in the World is not a disaster, the film equally is far away from being a masterpiece. As a personal yet overall basic look at the darker side of child acting the film works fine, but there is no breakthrough that truly becomes a must-watch and, largely, this is an innocent enough film that can be skipped by all except those who are especially interested in the life and career of Björn Andrésen.
