InsidePulse DVD Review – Casanova

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Image Courtesy of Amazon.com

Director :

Lasse Hallstrom

Cast:

Heath Ledger……….Lord Jacomo Casanova
Sienna Miller……….Francesca Bruni
Natalie Dormer……….Victoria
Charlie Cox……….Giovanni Bruni
Philip Davis……….Bernardo Grudi
Jeremy Irons……….Instigator Pucci
Oliver Platt……….Lord Papprizzio
Lena Olin……….Lady Bruni

The Movie

In less than a month in 2005 Heath Ledger went from being seduced by Jake Gyllenhaal to seducing the women of Italy by the dozen. And while the former earned him an Academy Award nomination for a powerful performance, the latter would be familiar territory for him in Casanova.

Ledger stars as the legendary lothario Jacomo Casanova, a man who has a different woman for every hour of the day it seems. Targeted by the Vatican for his “crimes,” Casanova is given a dilemma: he can either face the hangman’s noose or go find himself a bride. Wanting to live another day, he quickly wins the hand of Victoria (Natalie Dormer). She’s a woman renowned for her chastity, and Casanova thinks his task is complete until he meets a woman who turns him down: Francesca Bruni (Sienna Miller). Bruni is a radical for her day and era, resistant to Casanova’s charms and wanting to be more than the second-class citizen she finds herself resigned to being. From here it’s a combination of farce and romantic comedy as Casanova aims to try and win her love while trying to change the person he is.

It’s a cute, if trite, romantic comedy that hits on more cylinders than it misses on. And for Ledger it’s old hand as his Casanova is a more dashing, more romanticized and better polished version of his William from A Knight’s Tale. He gets to do stunt work and sword play, which he is more than capable of, as well as he gets to use his natural physical gifts and screen presence to try and fill the footsteps of one of history’s most notorious lady-killer.

Casanova the character is a man of many desires who seeks to reform his ways; it’s every woman’s fantasy to be able to tame a man like him and as such the film panders to every sort of intellectually dishonest moment and thought women often times delude themselves into thinking about men like these. Ledger is capable of doing more and he makes the character likeable, as it is a rather charming performance, but the crux of the matter is that you could trade any number of actors in and out of the role and the movie would be the exact same.

There’s nothing in the film’s script that makes him different or special in any way; Ledger is charming and delightful, making it easy to see how any woman could fall under his sway but it rings false and sanitized at the same time. Ledger tries his best to make the character different and unique, but at the end of the day it isn’t special. Casanova isn’t a legendary playboy; he’s just another guy who likes having lots of sex with many different partners. This is a farce, of course, but it’s such a disservice that it’s nowhere near as good as it should be.

Casanova, then, functions as the romanticized ideal of a womanizer who reforms his way because of a special woman. But there’s nothing that distinguishes him from other sorts of lotharios from other films both greater and lesser, from Hitch on up, as Jacomo is rather ordinary when the premise of the film (and the person) is an extraordinary one. It’s disappointing, especially in light of seeing Ledger in Brokeback Mountain; his Casanova isn’t anything ordinary or different in the genre. For the world’s greatest lover he isn’t anything special. What is special is his better half in the film, Sienna Miller.

Francesca is a wonderful character and a different take on being a woman for the era, as her ideas are a bit far-fetched for the times but she understands her place in this world. Miller, on the rise since Alfie, embeds her half of the equation with a subtle and powerful look at being a woman in her day and time. While given all of the usual sorts of romantic implications a female lead has, Francesca is a woman who wants what she wants on her terms and it’s quite fascinating to watch.

Score : 6.5 / 10

The Video

Presented in a widescreen format with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, the film has a great transfer. With lots of colorful attire and scenery, the film has a splendid visual flair that comes out wonderfully on the DVD.

The Audio

Presented in a Dolby 5.1 surround sound, Casanova has a great audio component to it as well.

The Extras

Creating an adventure is a 13 minute “making of” featurette. This feature mainly focuses on just how they were able to create the film, as the task of shooting a film in Venice is shown to be quite laborious. A lot of the challenges come in how to shoot the film as well as how to work with a lot of the laws and customs of the city, which necessitated a lot of green screen work for certain sequences.

Dressing in Style focuses on the colorful fashion of the film. It’s interesting to hear the cast talk about the colors and how they worked with the fashion crew to design unique and flattering outfits that corresponded with the fashion of the times.

Extended Sequence: “Hidden in Plain Sight” is an unfinished and rough cut of one of the main sequences of the film. Nothing of not is in the extended sequence, it’s just a longer build up to Casanova’s capture by the Inquisition.

Visions of Venice is a brief look at the city of Venice from a historical perspective, mainly using its four minutes to show how the city has largely remained unchanged over the 250 years since the original Casanova roamed the canals.

Commentary with Director Lasse Hallstrom

Score : 7 / 10