Casanova (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Featurette-Making Of-Creating An Adventure Featurette-Dressing In Style Deleted Scenes-Extended Sequence - Hiding in Plain SIght Featurette-Visions Of Venice Audio Commentary-Director - Lasse Hallstrom Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	107:04
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (65:07)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Lasse Hallström
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Heath Ledger Sienna Miller Jeremy Irons Oliver Platt Lena Olin Omid Djalili Stephen Greif Ken Stott Helen McCrory Leigh Lawson Tim McInnerny Charlie Cox Natalie Dormer
Case	?
RPI	$28.95	Music	Alexandre Desplat

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Italian Spanish Swedish Norwegian Danish Finnish Icelandic Portuguese Greek Bulgarian Romanian Italian for the Hearing Impaired Spanish for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Lasse Hallstrom has made some very interesting and high quality films during his career including My Life as a Dog (which garnered him his first Academy Award nomination), the beautiful Chocolat and The Cider House Rules (which earned him his second nomination). This is his most recent cinema release, the latest of many adaptations of the Casanova story which have been made for both cinema and television, including a very recent BBC production starring the new Doctor Who, David Tennant. This one does not really use a whole lot of the original Casanova story as Hallstrom admits readily in his commentary.

    The story here obviously involves a lothario and famous lover, Giacomo Casanova (Heath Ledger) who lives and loves in Venice in the 1750s. Despite the church disapproving of his dalliances, especially with novice nuns, he avoids the inquisition by having the protection of The Doge of Venice (Tim McInnerney who many will remember as Darling in Blackadder). However, under pressure from the church the Doge tells him that he must get married before Carnivale to avoid being thrown out of Venice. During a escape from the inquisition he happens upon a young woman, Francesca Bruni (Sienna Miller) who is protesting against the lack of educational opportunities for women. She is a firebrand and daughter of a widow, Andrea (Lena Olin who is also the director's wife) who wants Francesca to marry a rich lard merchant, Paprizzio (Oliver Platt) to save the family. Casanova decides to marry another young woman who has a reputation for virtue, Victoria (Natalie Dormer) who of course falls madly in love with him. Francesca's brother, Giovanni (Charlie Cox) who has secretly loved Victoria for years, challenges Casanova to a duel. Into this mix comes the Inquisition's toughest investigator, Bishop Pucci (Jeremy Irons) who is determined to see Casanova hanged.

    I'll start by talking about this film's strong points because there are quite a few. Firstly, it was shot on location in Venice, using many of the historic buildings which lends a real air of authenticity as do the wonderful costumes and set designs. It is supposedly the first feature film shot in Venice in 30 years. The acting is of high quality throughout and there is great chemistry between the fiery Sienna Miller and Heath Ledger. Oliver Platt is lots of fun in his role as is generally the case with him. The whole cast seem to be having a wonderful time, something confirmed by the director in his commentary.

    Unfortunately, I cannot be as positive about the screenplay and especially the dialogue which is sometimes quite diabolical. I mean, what sort of a writer includes a line like 'That's the last time I travel coach' in a chase involving horse drawn carriages in a costume film? Much of the other dialogue and ideas are equally as silly. This would be fine in a very broad farce, however this film's tone jumps around between slapstick, romance and even a bit of sex comedy. To my mind some of these elements really jar with the authentic settings and costumes. Another element which was disappointing is the CGI, which is very obvious and distracting.

    This film is mildly diverting as entertainment but my wife and I exchanged many pained expressions during the film, mostly driven by the dialogue or silly story. On the plus side it is certainly a very pretty film with nice locations, costumes and cinematography plus a photogenic cast.

Video

    The video quality is excellent.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was very clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was excellent. Some scenes included a little background grain such as at 33:49, but this is hardly a major issue.

    The colour was wonderful, rich and solid throughout.

    There were no noticeable artefacts.

    There are 26 subtitle streams in a wide variety of European languages including English & English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read.

    The layer change occurs at 65:07 causing a slight pause.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains four audio options, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s, Italian & Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks encoded at 384 Kb/s and an English Audio Descriptive 2.0 surround soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s. There is also a director's commentary.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The music used is mostly by period composers such as Vivaldi and other Baroque works. There is also incidental music by Alexandre Desplat. The music is wonderful and comes across well in this transfer.

    The surround speakers are only used for atmosphere and some music.

    The subwoofer came on occasionally for some thuds and fireworks.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu included an intro, music, motion and the ability to select scenes, languages and subtitles. Nice design.

Creating an Adventure (12:52)

    Presented in 4x3 this is a decent making of featurette which covers the difficulties of location shooting in Venice, especially the water, casting, the plot and characters. It includes interviews with major members of the cast and crew.

Dressing in Style (5:19)

    A featurette on the wonderful costumes covering the approach taken for each character. 4x3.

Extended Sequence - 'Hidden in Plain Sight' (5:35)

    An extended version of Casanova and Francesca running from Bishop Pucci and a quite different version of their capture. Worth watching.

Visions of Venice (3:51)

    A too short run down on the famous landmarks in Venice featuring the crew and the Venice Tourism Chief.

Commentary - Director Lasse Hallstrom

    Unfortunately, Lasse breaks the cardinal rule of commentaries...you actually have to talk. There are far too many long pauses in this commentary as he is obviously watching the film. When he does talk he discusses the music, the story - both the original and the one in the film, locations, technical detail, budget issues, ADR work, casting and budget issues.

    This movie has been released in other regions in the same format except the Region 1 release includes a DTS option plus the usual language and subtitle option differences. Region 1 gets the nod due to the DTS option.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

    A reasonable selection of extras are included but none of them stands out.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall