Casanova
With Donald Sutherland, Tina Aumont, Cicely Browne.
Italy, 1976, 35mm, color, 166 min.
Loosely based on episodes from the life of eighteenth-century Venetian author, scientist, and libertine Giacomo Casanova, the Fellini version portrays its protagonist as an enigmatic and lifeless man who fornicates with one woman after another until, ultimately, he couples with an automaton. Imbued with an air of funereal solemnity and elegance, the film forsakes realism in favor of a stylized romantic pessimism that confronts impotence, failure, sexuality, and exploitation as fully as Pasolini’s Salo. Enhanced by Danilo Donati’s Oscar-winning costume design, Nino Rota’s haunting score, and an extraordinary performance by Donald Sutherland, Casanova is a film of visual daring and pure imagination that renders an elegiac farewell to an era of Italian cinema.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
La dolce vita
Juliet of the Spirits
La dolce vita
8 1/2
Casanova
City of Women
Ginger and Fred
8 1/2
