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 | Casanova Director: Lasse Hallstrom Rated: M Now Screening  'Casanova' concerns the various frivolous social enterprises of the man of the same name who, by his actions, gave the word its modern meaning. The real Casanova is famous for his adventures around continental Europe in the 18th century. Though such adventures were famously diverse, this film, rather domestically, only focuses on his romantic exploits, and even then only those in relation to the particular setting of Venice, his birthplace. We are introduced to our title character, played with pleasing adequacy by Heath Ledger, as a highly skilled but reckless and perhaps chauvinistic serial-seducer of women. He's of the breed of James Bond, except that he finds seduction his primary purpose in life, whereas for our secret agent model it's usually secondary to saving humanity. Unsurprisingly the only real challenge that can and does faze our sub-hero is rejection, and in this case the rejector is Francesca Bruni (Sienna Miller). She is, at least initially, unaffected by Casanova's charms, mainly due to the fact she is secretly a steadfast academic feminist. The film being a comedy, our Casanova isn't shown in a tragic or moralistic light, but rather as a charmer whose flaws are mostly harmless. Indeed, it is the people that would have him chastised for his loose loving (namely, the Catholic Church) that are given the negative treatment. Jeremy Irons is their representative, playing the ruthless church inquisitor Pucci who has a warrant for the damnation of heretics and fornicators. Irons is lovably sinister as the iron-fisted distributor of oppurtunistic moralism and faux-justice, and is the perfect antagonist for our excessively liberal, ethically-aloof Casanova. Their interplay, which constitutes the most enjoyable parts of the film, is a wonderfully enjoyable farce of limitless deception and counter-deception. When looked at closely, Casanova and Pucci are actually morally equivalent, each taking their moral views to unethical extremes. Why then is Casanova afforded all the audience's esteem and Pucci all its indulgent disgust? A similar issue exists in a lot of contemporary comedy, such Steve Martin's 'Sgt. Bilko' (1996) wherein the supposed 'good guy' is actually a thieving, unreliable manipulator and the supposed 'bad guy' is a pursuer of truth and justice. Whatever else it means it is undoubtedly good to see that traditional, purely good heroes and their requisitely malignant evildoer-adversaries are coming to be seen for what they are: useless, unchallenging, hollow fantasies. Structure and pace, thanks to succinct and nimble writing and editing, are ideal, keeping the laughs flowing but not at the expense of (relative) subtlety, plot, or characterisation. The only real complaints concern historical infelicities and some slightly overworked sogginess, two things so prevalent in film these days that most have forgotten they are faults anyway. 'Casanova' is entertainment of the most indulgent and watchable kind, leaving little to be desired.  | |
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