Casanova ***½ (2005, Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons, Oliver Platt, Lena Olin) – Classic Movie Review 2131

Though hardly the most obvious casting, Aussie boy Heath Ledger is sexy, amusing and likeable as vintage Italian lover Giacomo Casanova in director Lasse Hallström’s lightweight but entertaining 2005 American romantic period romp Casanova, loosely based on the infamous libertine’s life. It was good role to cast the 26-year old Ledger in, and he responds well to it, looking as though he was having the time of his life.

In 1753 Venice, Casanova is notorious for his promiscuity with women, his adventures represented in puppet theatres around the city. The Doge of Venice Francesco Loredan (Tim McInnerny) warns Casanova he must marry or be exiled from the city. Casanova is falling in love with Francesca (Sienna Miller), who writes illegal feminist books under the pseudonym Bernardo Guardi and argues for women’s rights as Dr Giordano de Padua. But her mother Francesca (Lena Olin) pushes her to marry Paprizzio (Oliver Platt), a rich man from Genoa she has never met.

The plot thickens inventively and delightfully from here, with a strong, satisfying, nail-biting finish. Hallström gets the pace and tone just right. Unlike Federico Fellini’s version of the story in 1976 with Donald Sutherland, fun is high on the agenda.

It really is a costume drama, and a lovely looking one. The period costumes were supplied by four different Italian costume houses: Tirelli Costumi, Nicolao Atelier, Costumi d’Arte and G.P. 11, and shoes were manufactured by L.C.P. di Pompei. Wardrobe was also rented from Sastreria Cornejo of Spain.

Shooting began on July 9 2004 and the film was released in the US on September 3 2005. Visual effects are by Custom Film Effects and Illusion Arts.

It is partly filmed in a glorious-looking Venice where it is set, but some scenes are shot in Vicenza, particularly in the Teatro Olimpico, the Palladio theatre with its intricate forced perspective stage design.

Casanova looks costly, so the $37 million it took at the box office (and including only $11,295,000 in the US) probably was not quite enough.

Also in the fine cast are Jeremy Irons as Pucci, Omid Djalili as Lupo Salvatore, Stephen Greif as Donato, Ken Stott as Dalfonso, Helen McCrory as Casanova’s Mother, Charlie Cox as Giovanni Bruni, Natalie Dormer as Victoria, Philip Davis as Guardi, Leigh Lawson as Casanova’s Mother’s lover Tito, Lauren Cohan as Sister Beatrice and Eugene Simon as Casanova aged 11.

British-American actress and model Lauren Cohan, best known for her role as Maggie Greene on The Walking Dead, who stars in 2018’s Mile 22 with Mark Wahlberg, makes her film debut here as Sister Beatrice.

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2131

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