Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

jovana-13676 Yet another Fellini extravaganza, again with Danilo Donati's costumes. He won an Oscar for it. And believe me, they are something. Casanova, a strangely melancholic character played by Donald Sutherland, is surrounded with and literally swims in silk, lace, jewelry and - camp. But he is never camp and the film is never camp. It transcends camp. It's so over the top, camp runs away scared. Tina Aumont is probably one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the silver screen. She, and a bunch of other 'exotic' conquests are what Casanova thinks of in his lonely hours.

Barbouzes People, please: this emperor has no clothes. I love La Dolce Vita (seen it 7 times maybe? 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. It looks and feels like the bad dream of a director who hates his protagonist, or has a beef with his own sexuality, or with women, or with the men who like to please them. In the end, it is Fellini's fears we are gawking at, and Fellini's fears at this stage of his career are overexposed, with nothing original here for the viewer to chew on or relate to. Summary: I found this Casanova to be one long, tedious, depressing and empty film.

thisissubtitledmovies Giacomo Casanova is a writer, a wit and an aesthete. Venturing out from his native Venice and passing through the hedonistic capitals of Europe, he seeks to be recognised for his manifold and self proclaimed talents in the higher arts. But in his reckless wanderings, Casanova comes to realise that all anyone is interested in are his sexual escapades. Fellini called this film his masterpiece...Fellini called Casanova his masterpiece. It is. However, that does not make it easy viewing, nor does it make a whole lot of narrative sense. Casanova is very much a film that requires its audience to feel rather than to think, and what is more, promises to leave them unmoved. It is a brave filmmaker who desires to pull off such a feat and a rare filmmaker that succeeds. A compelling film. PE

ferocious_imbecile This is actually my very favorite movie of all time. And that is odd as I distinctly was disappointed with it when I first saw it. But it has grown on me over the years. Don't see this movie thinking you'll have lightweight porn from the Ancien Regime era. This is anti porn; Casanova's amours fill Fellini with disgust and contempt as do his intellectual pretensions. I've read that the entire movie is a condemnation of the Enlightenment which Fellini depicts as a fiasco. Casanova's tireless travels also serve Fellini well as a stage for his Italocentric racism. Every race in Europe is heavily lampooned; Hungarians,the Spanish, the French, the English, and most contemptible of all, the Germans. Distinctions are even drawn clearly between the racial and cultural differences between Venetians and Romans and Savoyards...This is Fellini's last great movie. After this he seemed to get so disgusted with the modern world that he withdrew intellectually; you see this a lot in older men. They turn away then they get out of touch. After Casanova you get City of Women and Fred and Ginger. They're all terrible, very sad to see the decrepitude of a great talent. But in Casanova we can see the great man at the very pinnacle of his powers. 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. If you can find it on DVD letterbox format don't miss buying it.