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Casanova [2005]
from Buena Vista Home Entertainment
starring Heath Ledger, Stephen Greif, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons, Oliver Platt
directed by Lasse Hallstrom

Features:

• Dubbed
• PAL
• Widescreen

Editorial Review:

A light farce dressed up as a lush 18th century costume drama, Casanova gives a fictional spin to the exploits of history's most rakish seducer of women. As played by Heath Ledger, this Casanova bears no resemblance to Donald Sutherland's unrepentant portrayal in Fellini's Casanova, filmed 30 years earlier. Instead, the great ladies' man of Venice is just biding time by bedding women, waiting for true love (and the return his long-absent mother) to settle down into blissful monogamy. He finds true love in Francesca (Sienna Miller), a feminist who initially resists Casanova's affections while director Lasse Hallström serves up a variety of lightweight subplots including Casanova's flight from the Vatican's inquisitor (Jeremy Irons); a host of mistaken identities involving, among others, the portly "Lard King of Genoa" (played with scene-stealing perfection by Oliver Platt in a blubbery fat suit); and the romantic negotiations of Francesca's mother (played by Hallström's wife, Lena Olin) and a young bumbler named Giovanni with his own promising future as a lover of women. It all adds up to a good-looking and harmless diversion that barely warrants an R-rating, and it makes a fine double-bill with the more enjoyable Dangerous Beauty, another Venetian lover's tale that was also blessed by the presence of Platt, who gives this Casanova the majority of its entertainment value. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Surprisingly innocent and funny
  
  I rented this film expecting from the reviews that it would be mildly diverting. In the event I found it laugh-out-loud funny: I have not laughed so much while watching a film for months if not years. And most of the time I was laughing with the film, not at it.
  In more than one way this film was surprisingly similar to a film on the same subject which Bob Hope had made more than fifty years previously (Casanova's Big Night, 1954). In both cases the film is built around the same central joke,... more info

• Carry On Casanova
  If you're old enough to have seen the "Carry On" movies the first time around, or have watched them on DVD on "oldies night", (don't worry, we're not going to ask your age) you'll see the resemblance to this funny take on the world's greatest lover. Slapstick, double entendres and misunderstandings abound, as Heath Ledger tries to fill the trousers of the legendary lothario without getting a broken back in the process.
  It takes place in 1753 in Venice, a time when no woman is safe from the charms of... more info

• An enjoyable romp
  I couldn't remember the newspaper reviews for this movie and on the basis that it made no great splash didn't have high expectations for it. But I found it a total delight - funny, fast-moving, slyly anachronistic (a la Shakespeare in Love which it somewhat resembles) and sumptuous to look at. If you come to it expecting a distillation of Casanova's endless memoirs covering the length and breadth of Europe then you'll be disappointed and better advised to get the recent BBC series. This is basically a... more info

• The music is one of the actors
  As the movie opens we approach Casanova from behind as he is about to reveal a story that is not his to tell. Based loosely on the known history of Casanova this play takes place and is filmed in Venice. It is one of those farces of mistaken identity and opportunity.
  Everyone did an excellent portray of the characters and the time. However I must say I was very much taken by Victoria (Natalie Dormer) the Genoa virgin. I wonder how she makes her nostrils flair like that. And that was a cute scene when... more info

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