Casanova

Providing one can overlook its biographical inaccuracies this is a gloriously entertaining piece.

As the title character Ivan Mozzukhin is wonderfully seedy and combines a lightness of touch with the look of a sexual predator who encounters precious little resistance. This great actor's sense of comedy is very much to the fore in the scene where he gives a manicure to crackpot Czar Peter 111 played by the excellent Rudolf Kleine-Rogge. The eagle-eyed might spot an uncredited young Michel Simon as a buffoonish soldier.

Venice of course loomed large in Casanova's life and the images of that city, especially during carnival time, are simply stunning. The art direction is superlative and as a bonus, rather than the curse of a totally incongruous 'specially composed' score that blights so many silent film restorations, we have one by maestro Georges Delerue which suits the material admirably.

Mozzukhin and director Alexandr Volkoff were a formidable team and this is arguably their finest achievement.

"Casanova" (1927) is absolutely from start to finish a complete romp and a hoot. Starring Ivan Mosshukhin in the titular rôle, along with a huge cast of ladies, including Suzanne Bianchetti, Diana Karenne, Jenny Jugo, Rina De Liguoro, and many others, plus great extra character actors such as Rudolf Klein-Rogge, this is the supposed biography (read "fantasy") of the 18th century rake Giacomo Casanova. Some will find Mosshukhin's rendition somewhat too old for the actor, or his gaze a little perturbing, but overall he acquits himself very well. The star, even the story, are all secondary to the immense sets, the gorgeous scenery, the pomp, the circumstance, some of which is the finest I've ever seen in any film, silent or sound! The scene where Queen Catherine of Russia is led into her hall at a ball for her inauguration as Czaress, and those with her behind are carrying her robe train is incredible!! Her train must be thirty or thirty five feet long, and it's wide, a huge and heavy train. It's a marvelous and beautifully filmed episode.

This is the fairly recently restored version, now available through Flicker Alley. The IMDb says the film is 132 minutes long. This version is 159 minutes, and I guarantee that it seems it. Not to quibble, but I had to divide my viewing over two nights.

Certainly recommended for those who wish to be enthralled in a silent film that has so much to offer. It's light-heartedness completely charms, though the length sometimes makes one wonder if it will ever end. Go for it!

Ivan Mosjoukine is an odd specimen of early movie stardom. He can be handsome or grotesque, quirky or intense. Another reviewer described him as a combination of Buster Keaton and Bela Lugosi, and it's hard to come up with a better descriptor. Regardless, he was a major talent of the 1920s and his films are always worth seeking out.

CASANOVA might not be the most high brow of his oeuvre. It's a spectacle first and foremost, tossing its ne'er do-well hero from one amorous escapade to the next. Clocking at almost three hours, one might be tempted to think this souffle of a film overstays its welcome, but the action keeps moving so quickly and the visuals are so sumptuous that the time flies. Mosjoukine acquits himself well as the mischievous lady killer, coming off as both opportunistic and weirdly guileless in the elegant but dangerous world of 18th century Europe.

Flicker Alley recently put this one out on blu-ray and DVD, so if you're a silent film buff, I would definitely grab a copy while you can!

The legendary libertine comes to life in this mammoth, late silent French production, resurrected by the Cinemathéque François and restored to its original brilliance, complete with hand tinted costumes and fireworks in the climactic festival scenes. The panoramic location photography and lavish re-creation of decadent 18th century Venice make the film a visually spectacular, picaresque epic, following the title character through various chases, rescues, romantic liaisons, and hairbreadth escapes, spanning the continent from Italy to Russia and back again. With his athletic build and hypnotic gaze (the better to make women swoon) the celebrated lover is made to resemble, at least physically, an odd cross between Buster Keaton and Bela Lugosi's Dracula, but by the end of the film he is transformed from an indulgent ne'er-do-well into a charming and, at times, heroic scoundrel. Variations of the same story have been told many times since, but never with such energy or style.

Ivan Mosjoukine pulled out all the stops to make the notorious rake look like a prototype James Bond. We've seen this in countless silent films already: historical and pseudo-historical figures such as Don Juan, Villon, any Doug Fairbanks movie. He's a superhero: irresistible lover, unbeatable swordsman (in both senses), daring spy, flashy gambler, unstoppable polymath, contortionist and escape artist, international man of mystery, debonair socialite, hero of the common people, and officially a wanted/outlawed desperado.

The weirdest thing is that that's exactly what Casanova was in real life, according to himself, but more or less substantiated by official documents and other persons' accounts. He was far, far more than merely the inveterate lover that his name has come to signify.

The film is spectacular, sensational, dazzling, a Baz Luhrmann extravaganza that even features stencil coloring (although pretty bad in some places: highlighting Casanova in red and white usually smears other characters in a bilious all-over green). The settings, including real Venetian and fake Russian exteriors, are fabulous; the interiors are sumptuous; the costumes and powdered wigs are superb (I'm happy to have finally discovered what makes farthingales stick out so absurdly on both sides).

Alexandre Volkoff directs magnificently. Mosjoukine is long in the tooth but full of commanding force. I struggled to keep the women distinct - those wigs and the clown-white makeup were an identity handicap for me - but they were all competent, while the main male supporting actors managed to stay just this side of farcical.