The sixth cinematic Casanova, directed by Lasse Hallström, is a cinematographic eye candy of costumes and the city of Venice, with a baroque music filmscore that includes compositions of Albinoni, Handel, Vivaldi, and others. The story is a comedy worthy of Gioacchino Rossini or even William Shakespeare, where there are hidden subplots and characters masquerading to push their agendas, but alas the dialog is neither clever nor witty. The tagline is a good summary: "A partially true story about lies told, virtue lost and love found." The year is 1763 (when the real Casanova was 38). Lord Giacomo Casanova (played by 28-year-old Heath Ledger) has been busily bringing sensuality to Venice's love-starved women, who are either suffocated in arranged marriages or are sex-starved nuns. Brought up on charges of licentiousness after a tryst at a nunnery , a death sentence is passed on him when Venice's ruler, the Doge (played by Tim McInnerny), enters the judicial chamber to change the sentence to banishment unless he can find a wife and settle down. At first, Casanova pursues the virgin Victoria (played by Natalie Dormer), but Giovanni Bruni (played by Charlie Cox) insists that he is Victoria's suitor. The headstrong feminist attitude displayed by Giovanni's sister, Francesca Bruni (played by Sienna Miller), provides more of a challenge, so he pursues her instead. The problem is that Francesca is betrothed to a rich Genoa lard merchant, Lord Papprizzio (played by Oliver Platt), whom she has never seen. Casanova then designs a ruse. When rotund Papprizzio arrives in Venice, Casanova takes him to his residence instead of to the hotel where he has expected to stay, persuades him that he should undergo a beauty treatment that consists of some bodily and facial bondage, and then Casanova pretends to be Papprizzio. Naturally, the ruse fails. Meanwhile, Bishop Pucci (played by Jeremy Irons), an Inquisitor from Rome, arrives to arrest and execute Casanova as well as a certain author of sensual tales named Bernardo Grudi. After arresting the man named Grudi (played by Philip Davis), torture reveals that he is the publisher of the stories, not the author. Instead, Francesca has been writing the tales under the nom de plume of her publisher. When the Bishop locates Casanova, he once again is condemned to death, but his defense attorney, Francesca dressed as a man, tears off her disguise during the trial to admit that she is the author, and both are condemned to death. But of course no comedy ends in that manner. Before the film ends, there are three happy couples and a frustrated Inquisitor. The historic Casanova (1725-1798) is mostly fictionalized in the story. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie, written when age prevented him from philandering though only published in English during 1960, will have to suffice as telling the true story of his many affairs throughout Europe. In contrast with the film, Casanova was extremely well educated (a Ph.D. in laws from the University of Padua), a student of Voltaire and others, an excellent speaker, a prolific writer, a spy, a diplomat, a military officer, a violinist, and a founder of France's national lottery. After retiring in 1785, he was a librarian for the Count of Waldstein in Bohemia. Tainted by scandals, mostly of his own making, he was banished from several countries. Unrelated to the fictional Don Juan, he was actually present in Prague at the 1787 premier performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni, which in turn is based on the 1630 novel El Burlador de Sevilla by Tirso de Molina.  MH

I want to comment on this film

Histoire de ma vie (Morceaux choisis)
by Casanova

El Burlador De Sevilla
by Tirso De Molina