Casanova

I caught this on TV one night by chance, and was cheerfully drawn in. Only later did I find out why it was so much fun.

George MacDonald Fraser, author of the "Flashman" novels, should have been signed up by Hollywood a long time ago and put to work reworking classics of the swashbuckling and devil-may-care varieties into entertaining and literate movies. As it is, he's only had a handful of chances to do so, principally "Octopussy,", Richard Lester's "Musketeers" movies and Lester's (regrettably lackluster) adaption of Fraser's own "Royal Flash."

So we're lucky to have this TV film, a quick and highly entertaining run through some of the highlights of the rascally Venetian's memoirs. Chamberlain is fine in the title role, Faye Dunaway is fine too as one of his lady friends, and everybody clearly has a great time. For a "prestige" TV production, the direction is surprisingly zippy, although it could have shown a bit more visual wit to match the writing -- but that's a minor problem. Enjoy the work of a great parodist. Now, if they'd just let Fraser adapt his wonderful satirical novel "The Pyrates" for the big screen (Oops! "Cutthroat Island" seems to have sunk any chance of that happening...)

I was excited to see "Casanova". After all, it stars Richard Chamberlain and his made for TV films based in the 17th century ("The Man in the Iron Mask" and "The Count of Monte Cristo") are terrific..some of the best TV films of the era. However, sadly, I found "Casanova" to be incredibly dull and I didn't particularly enjoy it.

The film begins with Chamberlain playing the lead. However, the film then goes back to his youth and he's played by another actor. The story follows him from being a rather pious young man to a real libertine...and an embarrassment to Italian society....stuff you'd THINK would be a lot more exciting. However, it's like a giant pile of meringue...it looks really nice but leave you feeling dissatisfied. Not a good film...and one way too boring for a guy who was quite the rogue and ladies' man back in the day.