Casanova (2005)

Really Surprised!

One of my all time favorites.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Absolutely wonderful!! Never knew that David Tennant can be so cheeky and adorable! This is way much better than late Heath Ledger's Casanova. Ledger was sexy and everything, but Tennant really has what it takes to be a Casanova; he's cute, kind, and extremely funny. Peter O'Toole also fascinated me with his performance as usual... he really added grandeur and beauty to the work. Although it is a TV mini-series, the direction was really beautiful and managed to capture the fast-moving, adventurous and dazzling world of Casanova (the dark side of it as well!); Sheree really did a great job. This mini-series will make you cry, laugh, love and live!!

I've read through all the previous comments and there is a puzzling divergence in the reactions to this work. There are significant numbers who seem to have expected this to be a documentary drama and have berated Davies for writing something at odds with the historical Casanova's life. This is missing the point entirely. It's like criticising Shakespeare in Love for being "inaccurate." This is a romp, with a hint of sadness, based upon Giacomo Casanova's memoir/autobiography. It is obviously intended as a diversion, every aspect of the production aiming at no more than the spirit of the thing, mixing today's argot and attitudes with those of C18 Venice.Russell T Davies's work is of a very particular style, knowing and self-conscious (one critic here seemed to think this was inevitably a bad thing) and, above all, camp and celebratory. If you don't warm to his style then avoid his work is my advice. For those who can accept it for what it is and what it intends, it is glorious stuff.

Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) was a Venetian adventurer and author.In this British mini series we see the older Casanova telling his story to a young maid.He tells about his cool jailbreak but a big part of his stories contain sexual experiences with several women.There was something in this man women just couldn't resist.But there was only one woman he truly loved.Her name was Henriette.I saw Casanova (2005) in two parts.This is a modernized version of this 18th century adventurer.It works awfully good.David Tennant is absolutely fantastic as the protagonist.He's often comical, sometimes moving.It's a real treat to see Peter O'Toole as the older Casanova.He gives a touching performance as the elderly librarian.Other actors do also a good job.Laura Fraser plays Henriette, the number one girl in Casanova's life.Rosa Byrne is Edith, the maid.They're both pretty and talented.Shaun Parkes is very good as Rocco, Casanova's servant.I had good times watching the story of Casanova.So why don't you just tune in.

I registered here just so I could say this. I've also written a review of this marvellous book for amazon. I'd watched this BBC3 mini-series,then seen the recent Heath Ledger movie,but I wasn't convinced.I felt the urge to go back to the source, Casanova's Memoirs, as written by the man himself. I started off with an abridged edition, now I can't wait to read the whole thing! Many fellow reviewers here seem to consider this mini-series historically accurate. It's definitely better than the Heath Ledger version, but still only a pale shadow of the Casanova that comes to life when you read his autobiography. It's not so much that the facts are wrong (though some are),as the emphasis laid on events, and the tone is just totally off.I approached the Memoirs with some fear,as I imagined they'd be rather boring, or dated, or rambling.How wrong I was! I found myself taking the book to the loo with me, unable to put it down while I was doing things around the house. I took it to work with me and read it whenever I had a spare moment in the office.I cannot express how fascinating the real figure of Casanova is, and how amazing, bizarre, amusing and exciting his adventurous life was. If this wasn't the most interesting man that ever lived, he came damn close. His life was so eventful, it could have filled the lives of a dozen normal men. The best fiction can only dream of being half as entertaining! His beautiful writing style, smooth as silk, makes him come across as clever, witty, insightful, sharp, elegantly sarcastic but not cynical. He was arrogant, yet self-deprecating. He was also comically big-headed, but ultimately likable for his emotional honesty, his amazing intelligence and great imagination,some would argue *too great* an imagination, even! He was interested in so many aspects of life, from the recipe for making the best hot chocolate to the great philosophical issues of his age. He mingled with rich and poor alike and was interested in all walks of life. In contrast, David Tennant's Casanova is just an ordinary cheeky, good-looking young buck. He has the subtlety and culture of a Big Brother contestant.His wit and ways would probably not charm people two and a half centuries from now. He is not someone you could imagine outwitting Voltaire, impressing Frederick the Great, making revisions to the libretto of a Mozart opera, writing history books, being a magician and an alchemist, dabbling in sci-fi (no,I'm not kidding you!),translating the Iliad, playing the violin, a chemist and mathematician and many more things besides. Reading Casanova's memoirs, you'll feel like you've been teleported to the 18th century! I never felt that way while watching the mini-series,it was just another swashbuckling adventure starring a nice-looking but predictable cheeky chappy not even pretending to be anything but an ordinary English lad. Of course the now-obligatory "woman of character" who wins his heart was also there -I have to say Laura Fraser was quite lovely,though. The real Casanova was famous for being a great seducer, but it wasn't so much the number of women he bedded, as the way he did it that's remarkable. Scholars say he had just over 200 lovers,which isn't huge by the standards of someone like a successful contemporary rockstar. Bur Casanova was interested in every aspect of seduction and that included engaging the lady in discourse as well as showing her a good time between the sheets.He wouldn't bed any old bimbo.In an age when women had no right to a satisfying sex life,Casanova was well ahead of his time. He wasn't moralistic about women and their sexual behaviour, believing they had as much of a right to enjoy sex as men, something unheard of at the time.He was more concerned with giving one woman he really liked several orgasms during the course of one night, than bedding more women during that same night, just so he could add more notches to his bedpost. Also, it isn't true, as the movie adaptations say, that no woman could resist him, as some did reject him. Also oftentimes it was women who seduced him rather than the other way round, he was also duped and exploited by some of them,and he did meet many strong and intelligent women in his lifetime. Before you think I'm idealising him,let me say that he was also an appalling figure (again, something you never get a sense of in the mini-series) and was a living contradiction. He could be an exquisite gentleman and on other occasions, a rogue. He also spread std and unwanted pregnancies around Europe, though he did occasionally do his best to avoid fathering illegitimate children. But by his day's standards, Casanova was a man who genuinely loved and respected women,believing them to be rational creatures rather than bundles of hysteria and emotional fragility. It's difficult today to appreciate how revolutionary that was. Unlike proper cads, he remembered all his conquests as individuals, describing them in detail as thinking,feeling creatures one by one.He was also famously bisexual,something that the mini-series doesn't even hint at! Despite macho the stereotype, Casanova was actually worlds apart from this laddish model of masculinity. Though some scenes in the book are rather explicit, even shocking,he is never vulgar or gloating. He also saw the humour in sex.I even got my parents a copy of Casanova's Memoris, and they're in their late 60's! On the other hand,Tennant's Casanova occasionally comes across as smarmy,and the sex scenes are nothing special,just sex as anyone could have it. If you ever read the Memoirs, you'll never look back! Even the escape from prison is far more interesting in the book. Please do yourself a favour and skip this mini-series,as well as the Heath Ledger movie. Treat yourself to Casanova's autobiography instead,something I assure you you won't be regretting. You can thank me later! ;-) Mini-series:4/10, Casanova's Memoires: 10/10