Excellent Dennis Potter's first tv series views the legendary swordsman far from romantic anecdotes of yore.
Frank Finlay's portrayal is of a deeply flawed libertine; a proto sex addict, whose conquests appear to make him depressed rather than fulfilled.
This arrogant fop's technique seems to be to bamboozle his gorgeous marks via a mixture of half-truths and flowery monologues which render them confusedly flattered enough for him to achieve his ends.
Don't expect to see flowers or chocolates; the provocative 60's still loomed large in 1971 when the BBC was still trying to challenge viewers rather than preach to them.
Told through a series of typical Potter flash-backs, flash-forwards and premonitions as Casanova festers in a rank gaol for minor misconducts, Finlay is absorbing. Aware of his mental health issues, he is nevertheless compelled by nature to continually do what he does, while finding no inner peace - the opposite, in fact.
In other words: this libertine finds no liberation in his behaviour but is condemned to repeat it.
'Casanova' would be thought edgy if it was aired now (and there's ZERO chance of that!). It loses steam towards the end of the 6 episodes, but when it does fire, it does so with energy and no little venom.
