Casanova

Year of release : 2005

Run time : 1h52m

Genre : Romance / Comedy

Cast : Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, Lena Olin, Jeremy Irons, Oliver Platt, Natalie Dormer

The movie is loosely based on Giacomo Casanova’s life.

The movie opens one rainy night, when Giacomo’s mother leaves him with his grandmother.

We then see him grown up, chased by the Inquisition as he is famous around Venice for his promiscuity. No woman is safe, not even the nuns or married women. His antics are depicted all around the city at puppet theatres and open air theatres. Women want to be with him just because of his name (gross).

Running from the Inquisition, he barges into a university board meeting, where men talk about how women have no right to be studying at a university, as their place is in the bedroom and the kitchen.

Francesca is a woman who under disguise entered the university, to talk about the woman’s place in society. She quotes philosopher Bernardo Guardi, who’s actually her pen name.

Casanova is caught and charged with debauchery, trespassing, heresy..among other things, and sentenced to death by hanging by the church. He is rescued by the Doge of Venice (the ruler of the city), who tells the inquisitor sister Beatrice, the nun Casanova was caught with, is supposed to be the cardinal’s mistress in waiting, and if he hears she’s not a v1rgin anymore, heads will roll, starting with the inquisitor’s, so the man releases him under the condition that he’ll get married as soon as possible.

Looking for a wife, Casanova sees Victoria, a famous virgin, and asks her father for her hand in marriage. The father is convinced by Victoria, who, when she sees him, she wants him.

Victoria has another suitor, sort of, Francesca’s brother, Giovanni, who’s been watching her from afar (his window is right across the street from hers ) and challenges Casanova to a duel. He accepts giving his servant’s name, Lupo Salvatore, for he didn’t want to fight, but his servant kept on taking his thrown glove, giving it back to him.

Because he doesn’t know how to swing a sword, he has Francesca to fight in his place, and Casanova ends up fighting her for his servant is not good with a sword either.

Francesca is engaged to be married since childhood to a rich merchant, Paprizzio from Genoa, whom she never met, and her mother tells her she has to do it, as they are in debt.

After talking to her, after the duel, Casanova is interested in Francesca, and wants her not Victoria. Unluckily for him, Francesca hates Casanova, as he’s everything she stands against, so he pretends to be Lupo. Giovanni tells him she has a lover, so he follows her around, and sees her going to a man’s place. He finds the writings, and thinks she’s with the man who’s writings she’s impressed of.

Truth is, Francesca gives her writings to the man, he pretends to be the writer, and gets the money for them.

Bishop Pucci is sent to Venice, and he wants Casanova’s head.

When Francesca’s fiancé arrives, Casanova offers him his place to stay in, as he’s in debt, and asks him for the amount of money he needs to stay at his place.

When Francesca and her mother find out Paprizzio is in town, Casanova pretends to be him, to woo Francesca.

I personally enjoyed the movie. Casanova lives a despicable existence going through life conquering women, not caring if he ruins their reputation, and has a change of heart ,literally, when he gets to talk to one, for real, not about the usual nonsense he tells them to get them into bed.

I never found Heath Ledger attractive, and didn’t understand the attraction, as all the women fawn over him, and to me he’s plain.

Francesca is a woman with a mind of her own, born a few centuries too soon.

I liked Francesca’s mother, who likes big men (her husband was one) and she falls for Paprizzio when she sees him. The feeling was mutual, as when he sees her he can’t take his eyes off her, calling her beautiful. I loved these 2 together. I really liked he got his happy ending, because he was a good character that Casanova was taking advantage of, and he was taken by the Inquisition, who thought him to be Casanova.

I liked Casanova’s servant, played by Omid Djalili, who also played in The Mummy, he was the funny prison guard, I love him, he’s always funny.

I liked the places where they filmed in Venice, the boats, the interior design, the women’s clothes.

I didn’t like how Francesca’s brother ended up. I really didn’t like his story, although it started well, a virgin, in love with Victoria, becoming the opposite of what he once was.

Victoria liked Casanova because she liked the fact he had s3x with many women (eeww..I don’t know why would anyone be impressed by it).She then likes Giovanni because she sees him leaving a brothel with the pr0stitutes all over him, praising his performance (gross!!). If you ask me, these two deserved each other.

The acting was good.

The soundtrack, from opera and ballet, sounded good.

The visual effects were good (they consisted of the balloon ride).

The movie has a rating in between 44% and 60% from both the critics and the audience on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.

Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a B.

The movie grossed 37.7 million dollars at the box office, against a 20 million dollars budget.

Rating : Worth a watch !