Fellini's Casanova (1976) Il Casanova di Federico Fellini (original title)

Director:

Federico Fellini

Writers:

Giacomo Casanova (autobiography "Storia della mia vita")
Federico Fellini (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

11 February 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History | Romance

Plot:

Casanova is a libertine, collecting seductions and sexual feats. But he is really interested in someone...

Plot Keywords:

Casanova | Europe | Italy | Memoir | 18th Century

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 5 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Donald Sutherland	...	Giacomo Casanova
Tina Aumont	...	Henriette
Cicely Browne	...	Madame D'Urfé
Carmen Scarpitta	...	Madame Charpillon
Clara Algranti	...	Marcolina
Daniela Gatti	...	Giselda
Margareth Clémenti	...	Sister Maddalena (as Margareth Clementi)
Mario Cencelli	...	Moebius
Olimpia Carlisi	...	Isabella
Silvana Fusacchia	...	Isabella's sister
Leda Lojodice	...	Rosalba the Mechanical doll (as Adele Angela Lojodice)
Sandra Elaine Allen	...	Angelina the Giantess
Clarissa Mary Roll	...	Anna Maria
Alessandra Belloni	...	Princess
Dudley Sutton	...	Duke of Wuertemberg
Majorite Belle	...	Countess of Waldenstein
Daniel Emilfork	...	Marquis Du Bois (as Daniel Emilfork Berenstein)
Luigi Zerbinati	...	Pope
John Karlsen	...	Lord Talou
Reggie Nalder	...	Faulkircher
Hans van de Hoek		(as Hans Van Den Hoek)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mariano Brancaccio	...	Dancer
Angelica Hansen	...	Hunchbacked Lady
Diane Kurys	...	Madame Charpillon
Norbert Losch	...	Admiral at dinner table
Mary Marquet	...	Casanova's mother
Chesty Morgan	...	Barberina (scenes deleted)
Marika Rivera	...	Astrodi
Dan van Husen	...	Viderol
Mario Gagliardo	...	Righetto (uncredited)
Donald Hodson	...	Hungarian captain (uncredited)
Elisa Mainardi	...	Party guest (uncredited)
Isabel Pisano	...	(uncredited)
Pietro Torrisi	...	Brute Man (uncredited)
Jean-Claude Vernè	...	Party guest (uncredited)
Renato Zero	...	Opera Dancer (uncredited)

Directed by
Federico Fellini

Writing credits
Giacomo Casanova		(autobiography "Storia della mia vita")
Federico Fellini		(screenplay) and
Bernardino Zapponi		(screenplay)

Produced by
Alberto Grimaldi	....	producer

Original Music by
Nino Rota

Cinematography by
Giuseppe Rotunno

Film Editing by
Ruggero Mastroianni

Casting by
Paola Roli		(as Paola Rolli)

Art Direction by
Danilo Donati

Costume Design by
Danilo Donati		(uncredited)
Federico Fellini		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Gabriella Borzelli	....	hair stylist
Rino Carboni	....	head makeup artist
Giannetto De Rossi	....	makeup artist: Mr. Sutherland
Fabrizio Sforza	....	makeup artist: Mr. Sutherland
Paolo Borselli	....	assistant hair stylist (uncredited)
Vincenzo Cardella	....	assistant hair stylist (uncredited)

Production Management
Alessandro Gori	....	assistant production manager
Giorgio Morra	....	production supervisor
Lamberto Pippia	....	production manager
Fernando Rossi	....	assistant production manager
Gilberto Scarpellini	....	assistant production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Liliane Betti	....	second assistant director (as Liliana Betti)
Maurizio Mein	....	assistant director

Art Department
Giantito Burchiellaro	....	set designer
Emilio D'Andria	....	props and furnishing
Mario Fallani	....	master painter: Frescoes
Federico Fellini	....	scenography
Giuliano Geleng	....	painter
Massimo Antonello Geleng	....	assistant art director (as Antonello Geleng)
Rinaldo Geleng	....	painter
Gianni Gianese	....	sculptor (as Giovanni Gianese)
Giorgio Giovannini	....	set designer
Italo Tomassi	....	building supervisor
Roland Topor	....	magic lantern designer
Luigi Sergianni	....	construction manager (uncredited)

Sound Department
Fausto Ancillai	....	sound mixer
David Hawkins	....	dialogue editor
Franco De Arcangelis	....	sound assistant (uncredited)
Massimo De Arcangelis	....	assistant sound (uncredited)
Oscar De Arcangelis	....	sound (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Adriano Pischiutta	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Pierluigi Praturlon	....	still photographer
Eraldo Barbona	....	grip (uncredited)
Massimo Di Venanzo	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Romolo Eucalitto	....	first assistant camera (uncredited)
Bruno Garbuglia	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Piero Servo	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Wolfango Soldati	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Raimonda Gaetani	....	wardrobe assistant
Rita Giacchero	....	wardrobe assistant
Gloria Musetta	....	wardrobe assistant (as Gloria Mussetta)

Editorial Department
Ugo De Rossi	....	assistant editor
Enzo Ocone	....	post-production
Adriana Olasio	....	assistant editor
Marcello Olasio	....	assistant editor
Daniele Cipriani	....	final colorist (uncredited)

Music Department
Bruno Hoffman	....	musician: glass harp (as M. Bruno Hoffmann)
Carlo Savina	....	conductor

Other crew
Antonio Amurri	....	poet: "La Mantide religiosa"
Tilde Corsi	....	assistant publicist
Christopher Cruise	....	dialogue coach
Mario Di Biase	....	assistant to producer
Frank Dunlop	....	dialogue director: English
Norma Giacchero	....	continuity
Tonino Guerra	....	poet: "La Grande Mouna"
Gino Landi	....	choreographer
Gerald Morin	....	assistant to director
Nico Naldini	....	publicist
Gigi Proietti	....	voice dubbing: Donald Sutherland (as Luigi Proietti)
Anita Sanders	....	assistant to director
Alessandro von Norman	....	assistant to producer (as Alessandro Von Normann)
Karl A. Walken	....	poet: "Il cacciatore di Wuttemberg" (as Carl A. Walken)
Andrea Zanzotto	....	poems: in Venetian dialect
Mirella Agujaro	....	assistant choreographer (uncredited)
Solveyg D'Assunta	....	voice dubbing: Sandra Elaine Allen (uncredited)
Oreste Lionello	....	voice dubbing: Daniel Emilfork (uncredited)
Paula Mitchell	....	researcher (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Produzioni Europee Associati (PEA)
• Fast Film (co-production)

Distributors

• Titanus Distribuzione (1976) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Gaumont (1976) (France) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1977) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Carlotta Films (2004) (France) (DVD)
• Carlotta Films (2008) (France) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Fremantle Home Entertainment (2005) (UK) (DVD)
• Kinokuniya (2005) (Japan) (DVD)
• Lumière Home Entertainment (2009) (Belgium) (DVD)
• Lumière Home Entertainment (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• Universal Studios Home Entertainment (2011) (USA) (DVD) (DVD-R) (Universal Vault Series)
• Video Film Express (2005) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• inD DVD (2005) (UK) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Tirelli Costumi  costumes (as Tirelli)
• Farani  costumes
• Nino Lembo  jewelry
• L.C.P.  footwear
• Rocchetti e Carboni  wigs (as Rocchetti - Carboni)
• C.V.D.  dubbing
• International Recordings  sound recording studio (as International Recording Roma)
• Eureka  music edition
• C.A.M.  soundtrack
• Cinecittà  studio (as Cinecitta'-Roma)
• Schott Music  music published by (for piano)

Also Known As:

"Il Casanova di Federico Fellini" - Italy (original title)

Runtime:

155 min | 164 min (original version)

Country:

Italy | USA

Language:

Italian | French | German | English | Czech | Latin | Hungarian | Neapolitan

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:12 | Australia:R | UK:15 (DVD rating) | UK:X (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating) | Finland:K-15 (video rating) (1988) | Finland:K-18 (cinema release) | Italy:VM18 (original rating) | Italy:VM14 (re-rated) (1997) | New Zealand:R18 | Canada:18A (Ontario) | Argentina:18 (re-rating) | Argentina:X (original rating) | Brazil:16 | Finland:K-18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | Norway:18 | France:-12 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Produzioni Europee Associati (PEA)

Trivia:

The sea in the film was created from cut-up black trash-bags; Fellini wanted to put high emphasis on the plasticity of Casanova's life and journey.

Quotes:

Giacomo Casanova:A man who never speaks ill of women does not love them. For to understand them and to love them one must suffer at their hands. Then and only then can you find happiness at the lips of your beloved.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Magic of Fellini (2002) (TV)

La Dolce Vita...yet again.

Casanova is bawdy historical speculation, metaphysical farce, sensual overload, ironic critique of Enlightenment values. It has everything you expect from Fellini - visual clutter; dislocated tonal shifts; childish slapstick in an epic framework; Dionysian outbursts; gaudy sets; ludicrous costumes; messy gags; philosophical ruminations; European picaresque; unforgiving seas; dwarves; arm-wrestling giant princesses; aristocratic orgies; butlers and their catamites; mechanical dolls; hunchbacks and nuns in heat; mocking, otherworldly Nino Rota music; squalid grandeur; sex contests; mists of abyss; noise; the terrifying silences behind the noise. The defiance of realism is total. Just because a film isn't very original, doesn't mean it isn't worthy. Or, more importantly, great fun.

Anyone expecting, from the title, Tinto Brass 70s-style Euro-art-porn, will be very disappointed. There is precious little nudity, and the sex is ludicrous. This farcical treatment is in keeping with one of Fellini's main themes. Casanova is among the most famous names in history, a readily recognisable identity, the epitome of male endeavour and virility. And yet Fellini's concern is with the dissolution of identity, the loss of power in masculinity, the subsuming of the (usually artistic) individual in the crowd and chaos. From I Vitelloni on, and especially in the Mastroianni films, the male hero is passive, powerless, a pinball to fate. Many Fellini films burst into confusing crowd activity, the audience lost without a point of identification.

Unlike Mosjoukine's amiable and active 1928 Casanova, Donald Sutherland's is not the stud of reputation, but a pompous, long-winded bore, whose sexual technique is uninventive and monotonous. Like Don Giovanni, another legend who fails to live up to it, Casanova uses sex to ward off death, only to realise that the two are terminally linked. Forever hoping to dine with great men of letters, he is always caught in the straitjacket of his myth, and of history's sexual representations. He is the embodiment of the Enlightenment, a multifaceted Renaissance man - poet, philosopher, chemist, inventor etc - but Fellini profoundly mistrusts Enlightment values. His 18th century is not that of Diderot and Voltaire, but a continuation of Satyricon - a bestial murk where appetite, confusion and cruelty reign. History doesn't change: there is no progress, man is unimprovable - the Enlightenment was wrong.

Casanova, despite his idealistic assertions, is not a being ruled by mind, controlling his destiny, but a puppet tossed about by whim and chance. There is very little light here, much shadow and fog. Casanova's accomplishments are mocked - his poetry is ridiculous; his aphorisms banal. His intellect cannot triumph over the age so he must go mad. And, appropriately, he finds a little happiness in insanity.

Casanova is a very messy film - frustrating, sloppy, continually denying momentum. Scenes often seem not to fit, actors in key moments lack synchronicity. Yet this confusion fits the film's theme, which rejects Casanova's ironical asceticism in favour of life in all its repulsive, topsy-turvy variety. It is a melancholy film, but also very, very funny.