Casanova
Short description
Casanova is a romantic adventure comedy set in eighteenth-century Venice, where the legendary seducer Giacomo Casanova has built a reputation for winning women regardless of their marital status. His life is thrown into turmoil when he encounters Francesca, a Venetian beauty who refuses to be charmed by him. Determined to win her over, Casanova resorts to disguises, false identities and elaborate schemes, only to find that his pursuit has become more dangerous than any of his previous conquests, putting both his reputation and his future in Venice at risk.
The film was directed by Lasse Hallström, the ninth of the twenty features he has directed in chronological order, arriving between An Unfinished Life and The Hoax. Heath Ledger plays Casanova, with Sienna Miller as Francesca and Jeremy Irons, Oliver Platt, Lena Olin and Omid Djalili in supporting roles. Jeffrey Hatcher and Kimberly Simi wrote the screenplay, and Leslie Holleran, Mark Gordon and Betsy Beers produced. Made for about 20 million dollars, it grossed roughly 38 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.5 from around 58,000 votes, and on TMDB it also rates 6.5, from about 968 votes. A critics' score of 5.8 from 135 reviews places it somewhat below those audience ratings.
What's left behind the scenes
- Fleeing the Inquisition at the beginning of the film, Casanova jumps through a window into a building of the Venetian University. Such a university never existed. In reality, the actor jumped through a window into the Teatro Olimpico – a theater in Vicenza designed by architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) at the end of the Renaissance. Completed by the master's student, the theater opened on March 3, 1585, and served as a model for theaters around the world.
- Unlike many other characters in the film, Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) is a historical figure. Francesca Bruni, for example, is a fictional character. She first appeared on screen in Norman Z. McLeod's "Casanova's Big Night" (1954), played by Joan Fontaine (1917-2013).
- Some elements of the script were borrowed from William Shakespeare's (1564-1616) "The Merchant of Venice" (1596). For example, Francesca Bruni disguises herself as a man to attend a court session. Jeremy Irons and Charlie Cox, who starred in Michael Radford's "The Merchant of Venice" (2004), played roles in "Casanova".
- Filming of the film began on July 9, 2004, in Italy.
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