DVD
Fellini's Casanova

Starring: Donald Sutherland, Tina Aumont and Cicely Browne
inD DVD
RRP: £19.99
FHED1865

Certificate: 15
Available 31 October 2005


Born in Venice in 1725 Giacomo Casanova, an adventurer, scholar and lover, travels the length and breadth of Europe, bedding women and seeking employment. He meets with various degrees of success, though never as much as he claims, in his twelve volume autobiography, and ends his days as a tormented librarian, in Bohemia, with his portrait, covered in faecal matter adorning the privy...

No doubt, Fellini's Casanova was issued to cash in on the increased interest in this real historical figure following the BBC's most recent drama written by Russell T. Davies and staring the future Doctor Who, David Tennant. This was not the first time that Casanova had been the subject of a film; there have been fifteen adaptations of his life, in film and on television so far.

The year 1918 saw the first cinematic version of his life in a Hungarian film by Alfred Deesy, which also contains one of Bela Lugosi' first roles. His next significant appearance was in the BBC play, written by Dennis Potter, which being Dennis Potter was held up for criticism due to its sexual explicitness. In 1987 he was played by Richard Chamberlain in Simon Langton's film, and prior to that in 1976, he was portrayed by Donald Sutherland in Fellini's Casanova.

Frederico Fellini (1920 - 1993) will always be remembered as one of the great European directors, though not necessarily for Casanova, but for his true masterpieces La Dolce Vita, La Strada and Eight and a Half. He left behind a work of twenty-five films as director and a significant number of screenplays; he was also known to appear as an actor on occasion. He started directing only when the director for his screenplay of Luci del Varieta refused the job. He went on to significantly add to the art of cinema.

Whilst the film follows Casanova's life, historical accuracy was not Fellini's first priority; he was more interested in the destruction of what he perceived as civilisation through bourgeois callousness and debauchery. The film thus allowed him to take the audience on a grand tour of Europe's grotesque self styled nobility - a dissolute bunch, for whom the word noble should be an anathema in the audiences mind and also to highlight Casanova's own faux nobility. Casanova's search for love and the perfect woman is at once his grand conceit and the harbinger of his eventual downfall. In Fellini's film, Casanova finally finds the relationship he has been seeking in a female automaton, sexual gratification and the perfect fantasy. Casanova is exposed as the ultimate misogynist who craves only the external and is happy to supply any kind of emotional bond from his own psyche.

The film is rude, witty and grotesquely beautiful. Donald Sutherland, for whom odd depictions or films was never a problem, is masterful in the role of Casanova; I'd go so far as to say its one of his best roles. He keeps the audience spellbound for the full length of the film, never quite letting his level of weak pomposity flag enough for the audience to have any sympathy for the character. When Casanova ends his days as a librarian and the butt of the castles jokes, there are few indeed that don't feel that this was his just deserts for a life badly spent.

Whatever you may think of the content of the film, the visuals are sumptuous in the extreme. In 1977 it won the Oscar and a Silver Ribbon from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists for Best Costume Design for Danilo Donati and the David di Donatello Award for best Music for Nino Rota, The following year it won a BAFT for Best Costume Design and Art Direction.

This film comes as a two disc set; the first disc contains the film itself. Sound is stereo with the choice of English, French or Italian dialogue and subtitles. The picture quality is very good considering the age of the film, there is no obvious print damage that I could see, but then the film is such a treat for the eye that you're immediately drawn into Casanova's world. The second disc holds a Photo Gallery and two documentaries, Casanova, Fellini and Me and The Magic of Fellini. This might not seem like much but the first is forty-five minutes long and a fascinating peek into both the background to the film and the life of Donald Sutherland. The second documentary, at nearly an hour long, should satisfy the most ardent Fellini fan.

So, not one of Fellini's greatest movies, but then Fellini's worst is better than most directors best. If you're serious about movies you should find this two disc set a real treat.

Charles Packer

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£14.99 (Amazon.co.uk)
   
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£14.99 (Moviemail-online.co.uk)

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