Casanova
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Movie Reviews of Casanova
Movie Review: Heavenly Heath
Summary: 5 Stars
Love that Heath Ledger. Really played the romantic/fool to a "T". Excellent movie for all Heath fans!Movie Review: Heath Ledger at his most randy!
Summary: 5 Stars
The minute he died, I knew there would be a run on this film. He is wonderful in it. I had to own it!Movie Review: Very Pleased
Summary: 5 Stars
I was very pleaed with the shipment of this order. I will certainly come back next time. Thank youMovie Review: "You need to Marry Casanova"
Summary: 4 Stars
Giacomo Casanova (Heath Ledger) has a problem. The Roman Inquisition is after him, accusing him of perversion, debauchery and moral licentiousness. It is 1750s Venice, and the carousing Casanova has been working his way through the nunneries of Venice. The local Catholic inquisitor (Ken Stott) tells him that in order to save his depraved neck from the gallows, he must marry. So he sets his sights on the city's most eligible virgin (Natalie Dormer).
At the same time he meets the feisty proto-feminist Francesca (Sienna Miller) at a duel and falls in love with her. Because women are banned from publishing, Francesca is secretly writing female empowerment books under an assumed name and is betrothed to the famed porcine lard merchant Paprizzio (Oliver Platt). Her family led by her beautiful mother (Lena Olin) is poor and badly needs the money.
How can Casanova get the woman he loves, whilst staying away from certain death at the gallows? He begins a game of cat and mouse, hiding behind various identities to get what he really wants. But then a new inquisitor (Jeremy Irons) suddenly arrives from the Vatican, determined to clean up Venice, which he sees as the cesspit of fornication. He makes it perfectly clear that he's determined to arrest and hang Casanova, who is the ultimate threat to moral authority.
The film is fun and entertaining. It's also silly and hectic and remarkably sanitized - you won't find much naughty, bawdy sex-fuelled romping in this Casanova. Heath Ledger maybe nimble and rakish, but he's not that sexy, he's also rather bland and walks through this role. Casanova may be synonymous with sexual abandon, but in this version, he's duty-bound to please the ladies who swoon at his feet and is more concerned with finding true love than looking for his next sexual conquest.
There's no doubt Casanova is gorgeous to look at, in fact, the film is a little too gorgeous, with director Lasse H?llstrom over producing the film to within an inch of its life. The real location scenes of Venice are fabulous, but it all looks so clean and scrubbed, set-dressed and over-lit that it might as well be in a Hollywood studio. Costumes are elaborate and sumptuous, locations are grand and glorious, but it all strangely detracts from the realism of the story.
Over-production isn't the only problem. The script is downright embarrassing in places, and quirky one-liners that are meant to produce laughs fall flat with the weight of a lead balloon. The humour desperately needs the smart, twisty inventiveness that Tom Stoppard brought to Shakespeare in Love. This script is merely cheeky, never engaging us on any romantic or thematic level besides the general cuteness of it all.
Fortunately the fast-paced plot keeps the movie rolling along. Although Ledger isn't the actor I would pick to play Casanova - Colin Farrell or Jeremy Northam would have been a much better choice - he manages to be charming enough. Sienna Miller looks absolutely gorgeous and overflows with sparkly personality and fighting spirit, even though she never manages to create that much chemistry with Ledger. Olin is luminous as always as Francesca's mum, while Platt and Irons clearly have the most fun with their characters.
There's never a dull moment, even as the storyline gets more and more ridiculous, and there's always a jaunty tone that keeps us engaged. Most annoying is the endless irritating baroque music, that just keeps playing and playing, it distracts from the action and rises in the most inappropriate places.
In the end, Casanova plays more like a watered-down children's film, a type of PG thirteen sex farce, rather than the sophisticated, witty romp the filmmakers were clearly aiming for. It's a pity, because even though there's a real spark to all the silliness, with just a little bit more edginess, the film could have been another Tom Jones, rather than a somewhat bargain basement, and second-rate Shakespeare In Love. Mike Leonard April 06.
Movie Review: Worth seeing - light entertainment!
Summary: 4 Stars
There are some reviewers who are disappointed that Shapespeare himself didn't write the script, or that Johnny Depp didn't play the lead role. To them I say "Be happy with what you get!"
This is a warm, amusing tale of a scandalous young man accustomed to using his rakish reputation to bed as many admiring young ladies as possible, and his efforts to thwart the authorities' attempts to control him.
It has the singular virtue that the viewer actually CARES about ALL the characters in the film, with witty dialogue, appropriately period music, and the stunning backdrop of Venice. There are worthy performances by all involved, the comedic foils of Oliver Platt and Jeremy Irons being outstanding.
Heath Ledger has a superficial resemblance to images of Casanova, and has an easygoing charm that is heartwarming.
The beauties he pursues are perhaps less engaging than the lively Sienna Miller, who plays his main love interest.
In real life Giacomo Casanova was an extraordinary man. He was highly intelligent and managed to mix in the loftiest circles in Venice, and later Europe as a whole. He was handicapped by an aversion to boredom, and perhaps might have been classified ADD in the modern era. He was later to say " I have insufficient character for my intelligence, and insufficient intelligence for my character". He saw no inconsistency between his Catholic faith and his life long dedication to the pursuit of sensual pleasure. His early career in the church enabled him to sidestep the moral censorship of the day, and he was always one step away from prison in his travels. He travelled the length and breadth of Europe as an entrepreneur, spy, and diplomat, seeking adventure and romance wherever he went.
Many of the episodes in this film reflect actual events in Casanova's life, including a rooftop escape (from the Doge's prison, not a nunnery as in the film) and show an interest in science (he rode in a balloon later, and had a career as an alchemist), music (he was a professional violinist, and his conversations with Mozart resulted in "Don Giovanni") and international diplomacy (he was frequently employed as an agent by authorities in Venice and Rome).
While being a man of many parts (one in particular being well endowed and in regular use), he was also a man attractive to men for his persona, and to women for his attentive wooing. He considered intelligence to be a woman's most lasting attribute, and in fact his one true love most delighted him by her conversation. Tragically, her death required him to continue the search.
After gaining and losing several fortunes (he introduced the lottery into France, and was an inveterate gambler), his retirement as a Librarian enabled him the leisure to record his autobiography. This, like Pepys' diary, gives us a fly on the wall look into his life and times. Though voluminous, it gives only an overview of his amatory career, as he refrained from causing offence to the many patrons whose generosity had supported him in his prime.
All told, this film gives a small glimpse into the younger life of Giacomo Casanova, and most importantly, everything in the movie COULD have happened, and probably did! Though the real man was no doubt more outrageous, the character portrayed by the late lamented Heath Ledger is much more to our liking.