Il Casanova di Federico Fellini

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with a carnival in Venice as a prelude to a series of erotic encounters that follow Giacomo Casanova through the cities of 18th century Europe. It is during this festival that a gigantic bust fails to rise from the water, which is taken as a bad omen. Casanova is then introduced as he defiles a fake nun for the pleasure of a rich voyeur; Casanova succeeds in entertaining him, but he is frustrated that the man finds no interest in his alchemical research and further scheming. As he rows back to mainland, Casanova is arrested, judged and imprisoned by the High Court over his famed debauchery.
During his time in prison, Casanova reminisces of his affair with a seamstress and later on one of her servants, Anna Maria, who is bound by frequent fainting and requires constant bloodletting. He eventually consummates his desire to be with Anna Maria. Back in prison, Casanova escapes through the rooftops and exiles himself from Venice, being taken into the Paris court of the Madame d'Urfé. The Madame, an aged woman, enthralled by Casanova's apparent knowledge of alchemy, wishes to transform her soul into a man's through ritualistic intercourse with him (an act that requires the presence of a younger woman in the room, so that Casanova can get aroused). Casanova then moves to the court of a hunchback, Du Bois, in between taking charge of a beautiful girl—"the love of [his] life"—Henriette. Du Bois puts on a homosexual performance for his guests that unsettles some of his guests and Casanova is brought to tears as Henriette plays some music. The lovers vow fidelity to each other, but the following morning Henriette has disappeared. Du Bois informs Casanova that an emissary of a far-away court has reclaimed Henriette, and she's left her bidding that Casanova not attempt following her.
While in London, an aged Casanova is robbed by two women and he attempts suicide by drowning himself in the Thames. A vision of a giantess and two dwarves distracts him, and he follows them to a Frost fair, where he arm-wrestles the giantess—a princess—and later pays to watch her bathe with the dwarves. Casanova resumes his travelling the following day. He frequents a deranged party at Lord Talou's in Rome, where he wins a bet with a stagecoach driver, Righetto, over how many orgasms he can have in one hour. The competition brings him higher acclaim. In Switzerland he falls in love with an alchemist's daughter, Isabella, who fails to keep up with an appointment to go to Dresden with him; Casanova instead partakes in an orgy within the hostel he's been stranded. In Dresden, he has a brief, chance encounter with his estranged mother in a theater. He then moves to a court in Württemberg, where his desire to be taken seriously as a writer/inventor is frustrated by the court's orgiastic, wild nature. It is here that he meets Rosalba, a mechanical doll with whom he shares a dance and later on goes to bed with.
Times goes by and an old Casanova finds himself librarian to Count Waldstein at his castle in Dux. Life at the castle is more than frustrating for Casanova, as he is made to eat with other servants and does not get the respect nor the food he claims to deserve. Waldstein's manservant, Faulkircher, and his lover Vidarol, make him object of mockery and animosity. A portrait of him is hanged and defecated on. Later on, during a fervent poetry recital, a court member fails to suppress a giggle at Casanova, who, humiliated and disappointed, goes back up to his room. The final scene has a weary, bloodshot Casanova cringeing in an armchair and recounting a recent dream. In this dream, Casanova is back in Venice. He catches a glimpse of the giant bust seen in the beginning of the film, buried under thick layers of ice in the lagoon. He chases the ghosts of his past lovers, all of whom disappear. An ornate stagecoach beckons him to join its passengers. He finally meets with Rosalba, the mechanical doll, once again. They quietly dance with each other.

Tags: psychedelic, philosophical, flashback

Review:
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.
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).
It has everything you expect from Fellini - visual clutter; dislocated tonal shifts; childish slapstick in an epic framework; Dionysian outbursts; gaudy sets; ludicrous costumes; messy gags; philosophical ruminations; European picaresque; unforgiving seas; dwarves; arm-wrestling giant princesses; aristocratic orgies; butlers and their catamites; mechanical dolls; hunchbacks and nuns in heat; mocking, otherworldly Nino Rota music; squalid grandeur; sex contests; mists of abyss; noise; the terrifying silences behind the noise.
Many Fellini films burst into confusing crowd activity, the audience lost without a point of identification.Unlike Mosjoukine's amiable and active 1928 Casanova, Donald Sutherland's is not the stud of reputation, but a pompous, long-winded bore, whose sexual technique is uninventive and monotonous.
As he deals with the story of his compatriot, Giacomo Casanova, the emblematic womanizer, he lets emerge a tragic figure, a man prisoner of his dubious reputation, a solitary creature that crawls on patios and lounges of prerevolutionary Europe, among degenerated monarchs and nobles who don't understand what is to come and have fun until boredom, The wretched Fellini hero tries to survive sometimes as stallion, sometimes as metaphysical guru and .
Federico Fellini's Casanova is quite an extraordinary film.I watched it just yesterday,late at night,and I felt charmed.Yes,it looks weird and you hardly understand what it's exactly about,but that's not the point.This film appears to be something like a dream.It's like a string of images which you cannot link using your reason.The atmosphere is magical.You can sense the corruption,the craziness in all those wild parties,the desire for pleasures that hides inside the socially repressed people of that time.Even the music by Nino Rota is weird,but it's hauntingly beautiful and it makes the whole film look like a real dream.The sounds have the power to hypnotize you.That's evident from the start.Clearly,a piece of art.The vision of Casanova in the director's mind.A man obsessed with the female.A man in love with women in general.A man who always looks for the perfect woman.He falls in love too easily,but love always flies from out his arms,leading him to self-destruction.Until he ends up with a doll.The perfect woman.Flawless beauty.Plus,he won't be deserted.You get the sense that he's crazy,that the whole film is crazy,actually.But then you think that it's a dream and you're acting in it,too.Hypnotization...A faraway land,a faraway world..
It is far superior and reflects much more the times and life of Casanova than the Chamberlain film that trudged its way from start to finish.
Though I could hardly bear Satyricon, I consider "Casanova" one of the best films of all time.The surreal nightmare world of Casanova's lost wanderings of the obscure cities of 15th century Europe comes alive and his willing enslavement to his own lust given free reign, in sex scenes which are only disturbing, could leave you wondering if you would be any different given the same freedoms.
Acclaimed director Federico Fellini's film follows Casanova through his various adventures in 18th century Europe.We first meet the charlatan as he entertains an unseen voyeur by defiling a fake nun.
From an aged woman looking to have her soul transformed into that of a man, through sex to Casanova, to cuddling up with a mechanical woman Fellini's Casanova is episodic and surreal.This is cinema as art rather than entertainment but that's not to say that Casanova fails to entertain within its artistic confines.
Director Federico Fellini's Casanova is an exquisite feast for the senses that threatens to become more style than substance if it wasn't for the hugely charismatic performance of Donald Sutherland.Adapted from the autobiography of Giacomo Casanova, the 18th Century adventurer and writer Fellini's masterpiece is by turns dazzling, funny and bewitching.
Little touches such as the turbulent sea Casanova rows upon made up of black plastic sheets add to what Fellini felt was the plasticity of Casanova's life.Original producer Dino De Laurentiis had Robert Redford in mind for the lead, but then more often than not, De Lauentiis was very rarely right in his choices (one only has to look at his career CV as a producer to see what we mean).
Fellini refused the notion of Redford as his film's lead and, after breaking from De Laurentiis as producer Fellini, cast Donald Sutherland instead, having the actor shave the front part of his hair and don a prosthetic nose and chin.Dreamlike and consistently enthralling Fellini's flick encompasses an individual that the noted director disliked intensely however in shooting his script he found some empathy for his lead character.
He amended his initially brutal treatment of Casanova in his script focusing instead on the man's inability to love despite falling in love too easily - the inclusion of the mechanical doll and dream ending were his compensation for this.Magical and absorbing from start to finish Fellini considered this film to be his masterpiece.
And even the the utmost squalour there are great beauties here to admire, for Fellini loves the visual world and expresses it in film with the most original cinematography and the most wonderful stage sets.
"Il Casanova" is probably far from being considered one of Fellini's best works, but it still undoubtedly a very entertaining, funny, visually beautiful film that tells various stories from Giacomo Casanova's life in a Fellini's manner, of cause.
Co-written by Fellini himself like probably all of his other movies, this one enjoys a pretty good, witty script, that was even Oscar nominated.
I found it a real pleasure watching from beginning to the end, although it is not on the same level of perfection as "La Dolce Vita" or 8 1/2, Il Casanova still has a strong touch of Fellini's genius.
If you have ever found yourself watching a movie like Emmanuelle and thinking: "This would be great if it were an 18th century costume drama with less nudity and enough nightmarish surrealism to make even David Lynch weep for mercy," then this is the movie for you.Donald Sutherland plays the infamous Count Fucula, a man who tries to have sex with everything he sees that resembles a female, and whose sexual technique generally consists of laying on top of a woman and bouncing up and down on her like he's humping a trampoline - and all without ever even taking off his pants!Short girls, tall girls, blonde girls, brunettes, girls with hunchbacks, female robots..
The opening gambit, a Carnival in Venice, is onerously undertook to be stupendous and eye-opening, and it is really hard to resist the enthralling allure in Casanova's each and every episode, sex activity is presumably the norm in it, but his on-screen virility brings some visual fatigue pretty soon (due to an R rating) and his action fades into mechanical repetition (certainly, the change of head-wear is a great diversion).
It worked and Casanova made off with one of the many fortunes he made and lost during a life of spontaneous and opportunistic self-invention.Among the most memorable set pieces that Fellini orchestrates is a wonderful dance in exquisite costume at the dinner provided by the hunchback and a young male ballerina.
In Casanova's case his last 12 years were spent writing and revising his major work "The Story of my Life"Fellini chose to give the mood of the movie a certain disappointment as if Casanova was never satisfied and always a depressive in nature, but this does not make sense, as it stands to reason that as a young man part of Casanova's attraction was as a bon vivant, raucous, bawdy, randy and full of life.
However the movie is styled as Fellini's Casanova and the odyssey it depicts - the life of Casanova - has been described as the greatest autobiography ever written.That such a man existed is historical proof that some men are closer to the gods than anyone else.
CASANOVA is visually stunning and features the truly bizarre casting choice of Donald Sutherland as the world's greatest lover.
And that's what I love about it, it's the true story of Casanova, an Rebellious Italian man who using his sexuality to find his place in life, the film does not contain LOADS of nudity, just many aspects of it.
Donald Sutherland is remarkable, and it is intriguing to look at his unimpressed, incurious, lost soul wandering between the splendid masks and suits of the high society which makes Casanova basically another picaresque tale and like La dolce vita and Satyricon totally excessive in every aspect.
Just like the French ambassador who watches the screen Casanova copulating, but leaves before he is about to say something, Fellini refuses the opportunity for the historical character to defend itself.
Casanova is one of my favorite films by Fellini.
Instead of cheap sexual thrills, the sex acts are choreographed in a silly and annoying way while the character of Casanova is buried under so much makeup and prosthetics that Donald Sutherland looks like a ghoul.
I know some of this must have been Fellini's intention, but many viewers will be left completely bored by this sterile performance--especially since Sutherland's lines are all poorly dubbed into Italian and so he neither looks nor sounds like himself!
Considering that in addition to this, that in previous decades Fellini had Masina play characters such as a prostitute and a horribly abused woman, it seems like he may have truly hated his wife and was having this acted out on screen.
I don't consider Casanova one of Fellini's best in the way I do Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2 and Amarcord.
But this argument doesn't hold up very well because 'Casanova' isn't just a name, it became an adjective defining a womanizer, so when the director who expressed to the fullest his lust for women and life's pleasures, makes a film about Casanova, maybe it's because there's something of Casanova in il Maestro, if he doesn't mind.Indeed, for all his nobility, Casanova is a sex-addict, with a constant craving for the weirdest and most grotesquely unusual performances.
The secret is to be aroused and excited by everything, it's a discipline.The score of Nino Rota has something mechanical about it, or experimental, but it fits the tone because Casanova took sex seriously, like an accomplished athlete looking for self-improvement, so a sensual music couldn't have worked.
As the owner of almost all (the available ones) Fellini films - and lover of almost all of them, I would say that to enjoy his 'Casanova' you need to (in order of importance) a) Enjoy the later films of Fellini b) Be accepting of his uniquely strange psyche and film-making of this period c) Enjoy the theatric, especially of the grotesque sort d) Be a fan of Donald Sutherland and d) enjoy period costume.If you are intrigued by the film's title and the certificate 18 rating and are expecting a soft-porn or erotic movie, DON'T click on 'add to basket' - you will be disappointed and I will get upset as your one dalliance into Fellini's World will be tainted...The sex scenes are always clothed and sent up outrageously, with farcical over-humping, shall we say....Fellini is mocking his central character here.
Fellini later cited this epic sprawl as both his worst film and as his most "complete, expressive and courageous".Donald Sutherland, with his Roman nose, shaved forehead and the most elaborate of wigs, looks the very part, so much so, that his flouncing and preening are as much of a star as he is.
Own the DVD at home!) and I like 8 1/2, which, though more navel-gazing, still has something universal to say, and gorgeous visuals to display; but this Casanova (like The City Of Women" before that) reeks of personal fantasies from its director, and in spite of the glowing reviews of some bizarrely entranced people on this forum, I bet very few viewers have been entertained since 1976 by Fellini's gloomy vision of a historical character who -by the way- had a zest for life and wrote about it in such glorious language that 19th century book critics thought Stendhal was the true author of those "Memoires" (I must add: golly, I did read the real Casanova memoirs, "Histoire de Ma Vie", the whole 3 volumes in French, and it was compelling.) The movie is constructed like a wild opera, with the usual cast of Fellinian grotesques romping about in extravagant costumes, on cardboard sets I did not find particularly arresting visually, while the script throws repetitive scenes at the viewer without attempt at coherence for 2 hours.
That's why I watched "Il Casanova di Federico Fellini", based on the autobiography of Giacomo Casanova.Telling what the story in this movie is about isn't exactly difficult, although it's not easy to bring it well either.
And the acting only makes that feeling stronger, although I must say that I appreciated Donald Sutherland in his role as Giacomo Casanova.In the end I believe that this movie will make it very difficult for the average audience to judge it.
Though it's true to say that Fellini's interest in "straight" cinema post-8 ½ did wane slightly, with films like Juliet of the Spirits, Roma, Satyricon and The City of Women all substituting character depth and clear storytelling for grand gestures and theatrical stylisation, there were at least a few of his later films that have aged surprisingly well and can, in some respects, be viewed in hindsight as being as interesting and artistically relevant as those earlier, more acclaimed works.Casanova is one such film, as far as I'm concerned.
The middle-part of the film (in which Casanova falls in with the carnival set and the seductive giantess) drags a little, whilst younger audiences might find some of the more earnest scenes laughable (the ending is particularly touching).Like all of Fellini's films from La Dolce Vita on, the cinematic design is absolutely impeccable, with the director creating his usual (or should that be unusual?) fantasia of abstract architecture, theatrical lighting and seas made of shimmering sheets of plastics, in which he drops characters chosen more for their physical look and presence, rather than their acting ability.
however, he later sleeps with the doll, ultimately beginning the downward spiral that will bring us to the end of the film.The final scenes of Casanova are very vague, and I'm certainly not going to pretend that understood everything that Fellini was trying to say.
Ultimately, the film worked for me because I understood what the director was trying to say in regards to unrequited love and I felt that Sutherland's performance (certainly one of the most neglected performances he gave in the 70's) managed to undercut the more over-bearing elements of Fellini's direction, and gave us a real character filled with pain, fear and emotional contradiction.
It's appeal will no doubt be limited by the theatricality of the design and the stark, caricatured performances, though I feel the film will, regardless, appeal to those viewers who appreciated the director's other key-works from the same era, particularly that nightmarish cornucopia of excess, Satyricon, the free-form reminisces of the picaresque Amarcord, and the grand-allegory of ...And the Ship Sails On. It's also worth a look for Sutherland's central performance as the libidinous wretch, and for anyone who appreciates difficult, highly-visual, European cinema..
Like all Fellini films, Casanova is a long, filmic journey that seems to drag, lacking any real drive; but, isn't that the point?
What were you saying?" "You don't understand, or you don't want to understand?" Although this is much later in the movie, it explains Casanova's inability to love (as Fellini believed your first real love was for your mother).
But no matter who the woman was, his "love" always resorted in sex, both times, the women being completely out of it, and unconscious for the experience.The final scene may be the greatest every filmed by Fellini (on par with the ending of 8½).
In Fellini's Casanova, the viewer follows the legendary seducer, played by a young Donald Sutherland, jumping through several episodes in his life, in a whirlpool of memories, impressions and sex.
It's Federico Fellini's vision of Giacomo Casanova's life and it's completely unique.The film's themes aren't love or the art of seduction, as the name Casanova tends to evoke, but lust and desire as basic human urges.
So viewers will only find a sex machine moving from coitus to coitus, with little concern for the women he beds.The narrative, like in many of this director's films, is fragmentary, and Fellini and his co-screenwriter, Bernardino Zapponi, freely adapted Casanova's autobiography.
Of course in a Fellini film the narrative isn't as important as the visuals and the way each scene is constructed.
Fellini makes up for this by giving every sequence some humour and titillation (the sex scenes may not be the best but are certainly the funniest ever filmed for cinema).
Perhaps this film isn't one of Federico Fellini's essential masterworks, like 8½ and La Dolce Vita, but it's a sexy, tragicomedy still capable of entertaining and inspiring awe.