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Casanova [DVD] [2005]
 
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Casanova [DVD] [2005]

DVD ~ Heath Ledger
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
RRP: £17.99
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Product details

  • Actors: Heath Ledger, Stephen Greif, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons, Oliver Platt
  • Directors: Lasse Hallstrom
  • Format: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
  • Language English
  • Subtitles: Bulgarian, Danish, English, Finnish, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 12
  • Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
  • DVD Release Date: 19 Jun 2006
  • Run Time: 112 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000F8ZLDS
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 9,443 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    Popular in this category:

    #67 in  DVD > Drama > Period

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

A light farce dressed up as a lush 18th century costume drama, Casanova gives a fictional spin to the exploits of history's most rakish seducer of women. As played by Heath Ledger, this Casanova bears no resemblance to Donald Sutherland's unrepentant portrayal in Fellini's Casanova, filmed 30 years earlier. Instead, the great ladies' man of Venice is just biding time by bedding women, waiting for true love (and the return his long-absent mother) to settle down into blissful monogamy. He finds true love in Francesca (Sienna Miller), a feminist who initially resists Casanova's affections while director Lasse Hallström serves up a variety of lightweight subplots including Casanova's flight from the Vatican's inquisitor (Jeremy Irons); a host of mistaken identities involving, among others, the portly "Lard King of Genoa" (played with scene-stealing perfection by Oliver Platt in a blubbery fat suit); and the romantic negotiations of Francesca's mother (played by Hallström's wife, Lena Olin) and a young bumbler named Giovanni with his own promising future as a lover of women. It all adds up to a good-looking and harmless diversion that barely warrants an R-rating, and it makes a fine double-bill with the more enjoyable Dangerous Beauty, another Venetian lover's tale that was also blessed by the presence of Platt, who gives this Casanova the majority of its entertainment value. --Jeff Shannon


Synopsis

CASONOVA is loosely based on the memoirs of the writer, adventurer, and infamous lover Giacomo Casanova themselves notably unreliable and fortunately has no pretensions to historical realism. Instead, it's a witty, lighthearted romantic comedy, which uses its 18th century setting and renowned hero as a jumping-off point for sexy banter and ruminations on love, lust, and freedom. Directed with visual flair and wit by Lasse Hallstrom a master of classy period pieces like CHOCOLAT and CIDER HOUSE RULES the movie was filmed on location in Venice, and the stunningly gorgeous scenery is almost a character in its own right. Heath Ledger, believable and engaging here in a role that couldn't be more different from his powerhouse performance in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, turns on all of his considerable charms here. Abandoned by his mother as a child, Casanova has grown into a lascivious yet oddly innocent young man, who pursues pleasure wholeheartedly and mistakes lust for love. His biggest concern is eluding Italy's puritanical Inquisitors, until he meets Francesca Bruni (Sienna Miller), a beauty who publishes clever pamphlets on women's rights under a pen name. In the time-honoured tradition, Casanova is instantly smitten with the one woman in Venice who doesn't want anything to do with him. The plot provides few surprises, but that is beside the point; the pleasures of CASANOVA are in its warm freewheeling tone, its sumptuous visuals, and the cheerful exuberance of its actors. In addition to Ledger's winning star turn, Lena Olin is her usual mesmerising self as Francesca's scheming mother, and the reliably excellent Oliver Platt (as Francesca's overmatched fiance) and Jeremy Irons (as the frustrated head Inquisitor) both deliver deft comic performances.

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Carry On Casanova, 26 Jul 2006
By Amanda Richards "Hotpurplekoolaid" (ECD, Guyana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
If you're old enough to have seen the "Carry On" movies the first time around, or have watched them on DVD on "oldies night", (don't worry, we're not going to ask your age) you'll see the resemblance to this funny take on the world's greatest lover. Slapstick, double entendres and misunderstandings abound, as Heath Ledger tries to fill the trousers of the legendary lothario without getting a broken back in the process.

It takes place in 1753 in Venice, a time when no woman is safe from the charms of Casanova, not even those confined to the convent. Luckily for him he has friends in the right places and escapes being strung up for debauchery (a big word which in the movie means that he shakes a lot of bedsprings without the benefit of a marriage license)

After going one conquest too far, his friend the Doge insists that Casanova get married ASAP, or face exile from Venice. Exile is not a possibility, as we learn early in the movie that he has a very good reason for sticking around, so marriage it is, and the lady to whom he pledges his troth is not only a virgin, but extremely willing to be wed. In a classic case of bad timing, he then meets the one woman worthy of his affection, and she turns out to be a cross-dressing (but only when necessary to prove a point) feminist writer who hates every bone in his body. She unfortunately is betrothed to a corpulent but very wealthy lard merchant (Oliver Platt) whom she has never set eyes on before, the union having being arranged by her late father as an insurance policy for the family fortune.

If you're still with me after all that, things get even more complicated when Jeremy Irons shows up as Inquisitor Pucci, out for the bewigged head of Casanova as a gift for the hangman's noose.

The important thing is not to attempt to take this movie seriously as a period piece, or as a factual account of the life of Casanova. It is a historically set spoof of the life and especially the times of Casanova and should be taken with a pinch of salt - or was that lard?


Amanda Richards
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The music is one of the actors, 8 Jun 2006
By bernie "xyzzy" (Arlington, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)      
As the movie opens we approach Casanova from behind as he is about to reveal a story that is not his to tell. Based loosely on the known history of Casanova this play takes place and is filmed in Venice. It is one of those farces of mistaken identity and opportunity.

Everyone did an excellent portray of the characters and the time. However I must say I was very much taken by Victoria (Natalie Dormer) the Genoa virgin. I wonder how she makes her nostrils flair like that. And that was a cute scene when she broke the wooden bridge that was made just for that scene.

Aside from the great music, much of it original, there are some beautiful panoramas and sunsets. And for those that like adventure you will not be disappointed.
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "You need to Marry Casanova", 27 April 2006
By M. J Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Giacomo Casanova (Heath Ledger) has a problem. The Roman Inquisition is after him, accusing him of perversion, debauchery and moral licentiousness. It is 1750s Venice, and the carousing Casanova has been working his way through the nunneries of Venice. The local Catholic inquisitor (Ken Stott) tells him that in order to save his depraved neck from the gallows, he must marry. So he sets his sights on the city's most eligible virgin (Natalie Dormer).

At the same time he meets the feisty proto-feminist Francesca (Sienna Miller) at a duel and falls in love with her. Because women are banned from publishing, Francesca is secretly writing female empowerment books under an assumed name and is betrothed to the famed porcine lard merchant Paprizzio (Oliver Platt). Her family led by her beautiful mother (Lena Olin) is poor and badly needs the money.

How can Casanova get the woman he loves, whilst staying away from certain death at the gallows? He begins a game of cat and mouse, hiding behind various identities to get what he really wants. But then a new inquisitor (Jeremy Irons) suddenly arrives from the Vatican, determined to clean up Venice, which he sees as the cesspit of fornication. He makes it perfectly clear that he's determined to arrest and hang Casanova, who is the ultimate threat to moral authority.

The film is fun and entertaining. It's also silly and hectic and remarkably sanitized - you won't find much naughty, bawdy sex-fuelled romping in this Casanova. Heath Ledger maybe nimble and rakish, but he's not that sexy, he's also rather bland and walks through this role. Casanova may be synonymous with sexual abandon, but in this version, he's duty-bound to please the ladies who swoon at his feet and is more concerned with finding true love than looking for his next sexual conquest.

There's no doubt Casanova is gorgeous to look at, in fact, the film is a little too gorgeous, with director Lasse Hållstrom over producing the film to within an inch of its life. The real location scenes of Venice are fabulous, but it all looks so clean and scrubbed, set-dressed and over-lit that it might as well be in a Hollywood studio. Costumes are elaborate and sumptuous, locations are grand and glorious, but it all strangely detracts from the realism of the story.

Over-production isn't the only problem. The script is downright embarrassing in places, and quirky one-liners that are meant to produce laughs fall flat with the weight of a lead balloon. The humour desperately needs the smart, twisty inventiveness that Tom Stoppard brought to Shakespeare in Love. This script is merely cheeky, never engaging us on any romantic or thematic level besides the general cuteness of it all.

Fortunately the fast-paced plot keeps the movie rolling along. Although Ledger isn't the actor I would pick to play Casanova - Colin Farrell or Jeremy Northam would have been a much better choice - he manages to be charming enough. Sienna Miller looks absolutely gorgeous and overflows with sparkly personality and fighting spirit, even though she never manages to create that much chemistry with Ledger. Olin is luminous as always as Francesca's mum, while Platt and Irons clearly have the most fun with their characters.

There's never a dull moment, even as the storyline gets more and more ridiculous, and there's always a jaunty tone that keeps us engaged. Most annoying is the endless irritating baroque music, that just keeps playing and playing, it distracts from the action and rises in the most inappropriate places.

In the end, Casanova plays more like a watered-down children's film, a type of PG thirteen sex farce, rather than the sophisticated, witty romp the filmmakers were clearly aiming for. It's a pity, because even though there's a real spark to all the silliness, with just a little bit more edginess, the film could have been another Tom Jones, a rather than a somewhat bargain basement, and second-rate Shakespeare In Love. Mike Leonard April 06.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Heath as Casanova
Heath Ledger is gorgeous in this film. His untimely loss has robbed us all of years of great performances. He truly was a gifted actor. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Keith Winestein

3.0 out of 5 stars "I will die if I don't have him".
CASANOVA is one of those films that you come away from neither truly loving or hating them. On the plus side, the film is sumptuously shot - the costumes, setting and scenery are... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Brida

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly innocent and funny

I rented this film expecting from the reviews that it would be mildly diverting. In the event I found it laugh-out-loud funny: I have not laughed so much while watching a... Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2006 by Marshall Lord

4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable romp
I couldn't remember the newspaper reviews for this movie and on the basis that it made no great splash didn't have high expectations for it. Read more
Published on 11 Jun 2006 by Guy Mannering

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice scenery
The story opens in 18th century Venice, where Casanova (Heath Ledger) is shocking the citizenry with his amorous adventures. Read more
Published on 16 May 2006 by Kona

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