MovieChat Forums > Casanova (2005) Discussion > Saw this movie last night.. Can't pick u...

Saw this movie last night.. Can't pick up my jaw from the floor yet.


Seriously - this was one of the best screenplays I have ever seen. The direction was reaaaally good - and by that I mean that it was incredibly bold trough and trough (where will you see such incredible scenes anywhere?)

One is constantly shifting between laughter and sadness all the way - I've never seen anything so heart-wrenching. I't just amazing.



Oddly, I felt that O'Toole did not add much to the movie and I did not really believe him to be Casanova. Tennant just stole the show. I get what they were trying to do - show the two sides to the coin .. how Casanova became a bitter old man, but I felt it didn't work all that well with the main plot and that Tennant's Casanova didn't fit too well with O'Tools'. I almost believed for a second that the maid would turn out to be their daughter, which would make more sense for the whole thing and I was a bit disappointed by the way they finished it off. Needed more Tennant!!! :)

But all that doesn't change the fact that this movie is one of a kind. I prefer to think that the last 30 minutes didn't happen though and imagine some preferred ending instead. I suppose it was just too difficult to wrap the amazing story in 3 hours - I really yearned for 4 and I felt Henriette had to show up in the end. I get what they were trying to do (or do i?) but I feel this story deserved a kind of happy ending. (So I might just try to write it out sometime. :) )

Props to an amazing movie!!!

reply

I'll agree with you that O'Toole was underused, but that's for plot reasons, not performance or characterisation.

I don't think the intention was ever to make them match up. Casanova is telling Edith his story. He makes himself a quirky, charming, affable scamp. The real Casanova is less romantic. O'Toole delivers more of a sense of lechery rather than frivolity or fun, and I think that's the point: the story isn't necessarily a lie, but it's not 100% truth, either. The different styles we see are (a) because Casanova has been beaten down by life, but (more importantly) (b) because Casanova the man and Casanova the character aren't the same person.

reply