Il Casanova di Federico Fellini (1976)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Federico Fellini

Writers:

Giacomo Casanova (autobiography "Storia della mia vita")
Federico Fellini (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

11 February 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History | Romance

Plot:

Casanova is a libertine, collecting seductions and sexual feats. But he is really interested in someone...

Plot Keywords:

Casanova | Giant | Mother Daughter Relationship | Whale | Gentle Giant

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 5 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Donald Sutherland	...	Giacomo Casanova
Tina Aumont	...	Henriette
Cicely Browne	...	Madame D'Urfé
Carmen Scarpitta	...	Madame Charpillon
Clara Algranti	...	Marcolina
Daniela Gatti	...	Giselda
Margareth Clémenti	...	Sister Maddalena (as Margareth Clementi)
Mario Cencelli	...	Moebius
Olimpia Carlisi	...	Isabella
Silvana Fusacchia	...	Isabella's sister
Leda Lojodice	...	Rosalba the Mechanical doll (as Adele Angela Lojodice)
Sandra Elaine Allen	...	Angelina the Giantess
Clarissa Mary Roll	...	Anna Maria
Alessandra Belloni	...	Princess
Dudley Sutton	...	Duke of Wuertemberg

Also Known As:

Casanova (Italy) (short title)
Fellini's Casanova (USA)

Runtime:

155 min | 164 min (original version)

Country:

Italy | USA

Language:

Italian | French | German | English | Czech | Latin | Hungarian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:12 | Australia:R | UK:15 (DVD rating) | UK:X (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating) | Finland:K-15 (video rating) (1988) | Finland:K-18 (cinema release) | Italy:VM18 (original rating) | Italy:VM14 (re-rated) (1997) | New Zealand:R18 | Canada:18A (Ontario) | Argentina:18 (re-rating) | Argentina:X (original rating) | Finland:K-18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | Norway:18 | France:-12 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Alberto Grimaldi Productions

Trivia:

When it was completed, Fellini thought it was his best film, and was inevitably heartbroken when it was not critically received in America.

Quotes:

Giacomo Casanova: A man who never speaks ill of women does not love them. For to understand them and to love them one must suffer at their hands. Then and only then can you find happiness at the lips of your beloved.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Red Dead Revolver (2004) (VG)

Without a doubt Fellini's best, and, ironically, most depressing film.

I totally disagree with the critical trend of discrediting Fellini's later films as symptomatic of his decline. Instead, I believe that Fellini's last films were actually his best. And Casanova, by far Fellin's worst reviewed film, is Fellin's masterpiece-- a sad, funny, wistful, grotesque, Rabelisian epic of a film.

In a way, Casanova is a foil to Fellini's earlier classic La Dolce Vita-- the main difference being that the former is more pessimistic in tone, while the latter is enfused with a youthful optimism. In a way, that's how the films of Fellini have progressed; his earlier films were filled with an almost child-like love for life (albeit with some very dark edges), while his later films became increasingly darker and more depressing. Strangely enough, Fellini's later films were also his best, both on a technical level, and in terms of thematic depth.

Casanova is not only the story of a man, it is also about a whole era-- an era of grand opulence and grand waste. Like in many of Fellini's other films, the protagonist of Casanova serves as a guide for us through a phantasmagoric carnival-like world. Casanova is depicted as a sexually-ravenuous, and deeply cynical man. He is constantly searching for some kind of image of the perfect woman-- an ideal which eventually leads to his own destruction.

Casanova is not a film for everyone-- despite having the usual Fellinisque scenes of ribaldry, Casanova is for the most part slowly paced (it reminds me of Kubrick's Barry Lyndon). Ultimately, Casanova, like Fellini's And the Ship Sails On, is about the passing of a golden age into oblivion. One leaves Casanova feeling both depressed, and yet somehow hopeful. Why?

Perhaps because like all great artists, Fellini realizes that in our darkest hours, we still can hold on to our memories of happier times.