Monday, April 17, 2006

Giaccomo Casanova

An Hero for Our Times?

The latest movie product of Casanova Industries Inc. ..

The latest film starring Casanova, by Lasse Hallstrom, was another attempt at convincing us that if only Giaccomo had been able to pursue his supposed true love his polygamous serial infidelity would have ended. In the most recent BBC series it was Henriette who could have performed that miraculous rehabilitation of Casanova, in this film the therapeutic role belongs to a Francesa Bruni, a hyper-clever feminist with good looks (a kind of XVIII century Naomi Wolfe). Does that do justice to the "historical" Casanova, the one we know from his "Histoire de Ma Vie"? It does not really matter. The more "approaches", the more twisted angles that serve as pretexts to re-visit the archetype of the Free Man, the better. He is the true scapegoat of our times. According to many, if divorces figures are what they are, if men prefer pollinating to committing, if seduction has such a luciferous fame - it all comes to the unrestrained anti-social pleasure-seeking Casanovesque behaviour of most men when left to fend for themselves in the real sexual world. So, one as to turn him either into a pathetic figure (like Fellini has done, possibly out of Middle-Italy envy for Venetians) or into a morally-acceptable flawed character capable of redemption if only... Enjoy.

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