CASANOVA
Year: 2005
USA: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
UK: Buena Vista International UK
Cast: Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons, Oliver Platt, Lena Olin, Charlie Cox, Victoria Arbiter, Lauren Gohan, Lauren Cohan, Phil Davis, Kristy DiBiccari, Omid Djalili, Natalie Dormer, Stephen Greif, Tommy Körberg, Helen McCrory, Tim McInnerny, Ben Moor, Andrea Osvart, Francis Pardeilhan, Paola Pessot, Jessica Seaton, Tom Sellwood, Eugene Simon, Adelmo Togliani
Director: Lasse Hallström
Country: USA
USA & UK: 111 mins
USA Rated: R for some sexual content
UK Certificate: 12A contains moderate sexual references
USA Release Date: 6 January 2006
USA Release Date: 25 December 2005 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 17 February 2006
UK Distributor
Synopsis
1700s Venice—He was the legendary adventurer whose amorous dalliances would go on to inspire countless lovers throughout the centuries. She was the most virtuoso writer of her time who was waiting to find that rare man with a true understanding of steadfastness and passion. When Giacomo Casanova (Heath Ledger) discovered an alluring Venetian beauty, Francesca Bruni (Sienna Miller), he met his ultimate romantic match, succumbing to the only woman ever to refuse his charms...until he could prove himself to be the one man worthy of her romantic ideals.
Through a series of clever disguises and scheming ruses, he manages to get ever closer to Francesca. But he is playing the most dangerous game he has ever encountered - one that will risk not only his life and reputation but also his only chance at true passion.
With CASANOVA, Academy Award®-nominated director Lasse Hallström (CIDER HOUSE RULES, CHOCOLAT) creates a sharp, sophisticated modern comedy from the long-running legend of Giacomo Casanova, the Renaissance-era spy, soldier, writer, philosopher and adventurer who became famed as a notorious lover of women. Though Casanova's life and loves have been explored in dozens of screen incarnations, he has never been seen in so essentially human a predicament: befuddled by his stolen heart and trying to become a better man in his own clever fashion. The film is at once the director's most delightfully romantic and comedic work to date—as well as a playful exploration into the timeless conflicts between repression and sensuality, disguises and identity, desire and love.
Key to the vision for the film was creating a Casanova with a contemporary edge: youthful, accessible and emotionally true-to-life. Running away with this imaginative concept, the film's screenwriters bring forth a very different view of Casanova's myth. Here, Casanova is not only a dashing rebel and wit, but also a vulnerable man who is chasing after love as Bishop Pucci (Academy Award® winner Jeremy Irons) of the Inquisition chases after him. Caught up in a comic whirl of disguises, duels, deceit and love-struck desire, Casanova begins to see the vital difference between the allure of conquest and the power of true love.
A Touchstone Pictures release, CASANOVA is directed by Lasse Hallström from a story by Kimberly Simi and Michael Cristofer and a screenplay by Jeffrey Hatcher and Kimberly Simi. The film also stars Oscar® Winner Jeremy Irons, as the detective-like Bishop Pucci who pursues Casanova, hoping to catch him in the act of illicit seduction, Oscar® nominee Lena Olin as the mother of Casanova's arranged bride-to-be, and Oliver Platt as Papprizzio, Francesca's betrothed.