Casanova (2005)
Directed by Lasse Hallström
With a reputation for seducing members of the opposite sex, regardless of their marital status, a notorious womanizer discovers a beauty who seems impervious to his charms. However, as he continues to pursue the indifferent lady, he finds himself falling in love.
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18 films that influenced Casanova
What critics say influenced Casanova
For it's also the name given to Joan Fontaine as Bob Hope's love interest in the 1950s spoof, Casanova's Big Night.
In the 1954 comedy "Casanova's Big Night," she is courted by Pippi Poplino ( Bob Hope ), a Casanova impersonator who puts on a mask and tries to seduce her.
"Casanova" is pure fluff -- it's "Dangerous Liaisons" or "Tom Jones" with nearly every trace of seriousness scrubbed away -- and director Lasse Hallstrom doesn't try to build it up into anything of significance.
Hallström, in fact, seems to have gone even farther back for his inspiration: Tony Richardson�s 1963 Tom Jones.
Leaning a little extra heavily on the Shakespeare in Love button, Lasse Hallstrom's Casanova is a slight, silly, and entirely frothy little confection ... but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find some really entertaining stuff littered throughout its weirdness.
In that sense -- and many others -- the movie recalls the playful, knockabout verve of Richard Lester's 1970s "Three Musketeers" romps -- or, more recently, the 1998 Oscar winner "Shakespeare in Love," without the soaring glories of the latter's Oscar-winning script.
Basically it's just a big, childish farce--more American Pie than Shakespeare in Love.
Comparisons to “Shakespeare in Love” are inevitable, and while it isn’t better than that, it’s not exactly trying to be, regardless of the myriad of similar themes.
Such obstacles are predictably mined for sub-Shakespearean (or, rather, sub-Shakespeare in Love) identity flip-flops in which Francesca's covert career as a writer of women's lib literature is matched by Casanova's masquerading as Papprizzio (at a masquerade ball, no less).
He's playing, to paraphrase Elizabeth Taylor in ''Butterfield 8," the slut of all time -- or at least of 18th-century Europe.
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The Inquisition has targeted Casanova for his nonconformist libertinism, but it�s really using him as a patsy to get at his city state�s independence, a situation very similar to that in Ken Russell�s Fellini-esque The Devils.
Could this have been helmed by the same man who brought us "My Life as a Dog" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape"?
"My Life as a Dog"; "What's Eating Gilbert Grape"), has hooked up with two screenwriters, Jeffrey ("Stage Beauty") Hatcher and Kimberly Simi, to concoct a leaden farce that is neither sexy nor funny.
Set in 1700s Venice, and lushly shot by director of photography Oliver Stapleton, this film by Lasse Hallstrom ("Chocolat," "My Life as a Dog") takes a modernistic approach to an old story.
This film is more reminiscent of his earlier work, such as 1985's "My Life as a Dog," rather than the more dramatic features he's done of late, including "An Unfinished Life."
Instead, Hallstrom ("My Life as a Dog," "The Cider House Rules," "Chocolat") has used Casanova's mystique for half of a dumb romantic morality play, one which expects us to believe that after meeting one centered, smart young woman, Casanova suddenly learned to get over himself!
True, the flick derails quite noticeably on more than one occasion (some of the banter is belabored and one particular sex gag is stolen right out of American Pie -- and they stole it from Police Academy!), but the good points more than balance the bad.
Basically it's just a big, childish farce--more American Pie than Shakespeare in Love.
There's also a lovely American Pie tribute where Casanova receives a blowjob under the table (from a virgin who orgasms whenever she looks at the guy--feminism, hurray!) while talking to his future in-laws.
Those interested in the real deal might want to check out Fellini�s 1976 extravaganza with Donald Sutherland; a comparison of its overripe ennui with Lasse Hallström�s post�American Pie puerility here tells a lot about what�s happened to sex in the cinema over the past three decades.
Helping the proceedings somewhat is Oliver Platt as the overstuffed, overfed creature, Papprizzio, who has made a fortune shucking lard; Hallstrom's own wife, Lena Olin, as Francesca's fantastically bewigged mother; and Jeremy Irons as the inquisitor Bishop Pucci, who gives a performance that makes everyone in "The Producers" seem tame by comparison.
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The Doge (Tim McInnerny, "The Emperor's New Clothes") warns him that the Vatican is watching him.
Director Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules, Chocolat) contributes a solo audio commentary, which is a pretty low-key, dry, and friendly affair.
“The Cider House Rules,” “Chocolat,” “The Shipping News” and 2005’s “An Unfinished Life” are all competent, enjoyable films with a smattering of emotion and a dash of soft-focus romance.
Instead, Hallstrom ("My Life as a Dog," "The Cider House Rules," "Chocolat") has used Casanova's mystique for half of a dumb romantic morality play, one which expects us to believe that after meeting one centered, smart young woman, Casanova suddenly learned to get over himself!
The light-hearted Casanova is also a breath of fresh air after his saccharine literary adaptations for Miramax, which have rolled in like clockwork for Oscar season since 1999’s The Cider House Rules.