Fellini's Casanova

Casanova is a living legend. His sexual prowess is known across the land and as such he is given the task of sleeping with woman solely because he can last. He moves from conquest to conquest, falling into love and out at the drop of a hat.He is challenged by nobles to have sex in a competition against another equally viralent man. Taking the challenge he wins and becomes the sexual conqurer of the land. He can stop himself and sleeps with old women, sick women, Nuns, Hunchbacks and even a robot. He even takes part in an orgy of vile performers and characters. All to prove his sexual appetite is as strong and powerful as ever but what does it leave for him in the end?

The Casanova myth is the sort of thing that rises many a male's attention. The dream of being regarded as a superb sexual performer has underlined
many a teenage boys wet dream. The porn industry is based on this type of self obsession and often is sold as its performers being the Casanova of modern times. Well within this strikingly looking and extremly dense film is a world as hollow and empty as its myth. Fellini has crafted a film that is in essence about the way many see themselves and the reality of what they are. Casanova sees himself as adored and glorified by masses of people. He sees them look at him as a stunning example of man. Where i reality he is seen much like the sideshows he visits. A freak that has the inability to love but the ability to have prolonged sexual encounters. Sutherland and Fellini both understand that they have begun to create a charater that is empty and devoid of any level of emotional content.Sutherland gives an exceptional performance as the self absorbed Casanova. He has to spin, twirl and gesture but he also has to break apart and slowly slide into melancholic decay. His physical presence is even more engrossing with the additions of a fake chin and nose. His large body being almost mammoth but like his sexual ability, leaves him vastly alone in an empty world.

The visual space is just as interesting and many have spoken on it. Yes it did win an oscar, deservedly so in my opinion but it is more than that. The space reflects the continued lose of Casanova. Empty and false in many places, it later becomes the dreamlike enviroment of people that are ugly and miserable. Fellini has the space engulf all in its fake and overtly sexual image. I love the subtle and unsubtle erect penises. They haunt the spaces and give attention to Casanova as simply a sexual object. The paintings are also magnificent in that they depict phantoms. People are ghostly in their view and the contort and twist across the canvas. These underpin the delusion of being Casanovas has. A master piece can be so dense as to need a second, third or more look. I will feel this film is my undoing. I may have to commit my life to its study before I can finish exposing its vast and complex layers.

Buy it!