[Quick Summary: Giacomo Casanova, a big flirt, tries to make sense of his life.]
THREE THINGS TO KNOW:
1) WHO IS CASANOVA? As the film's title says, this is Fellini's version of Casanova. But what is that? The printed version of this script includes this explanation in the foreword:
And so, who is this fascinating apparition - Fellini's Casanova? An incurable idealist, longing for the unattainable? Then why, as Fellini's assistant recalled, did the director mutter while shooting the film, "I should never have made this film. I should have let it go"? Could it be that Fellini made the film at a time when he was going through the stage in his life akin to what Tolstoy went through when he was writing his "Kreutzer Sonata"? Fellini almost said that: " For me the film meant crossing the line, gliding into the last part of my life....Perhaps, subconsciously I placed all my fears, the anxiety I can't face in this film." The anxiety of the artist who is always expected to perform; a "vanity of vanities!" anxiety; the anxiety of ultimate loneliness; the anxiety of the void - encroaching and inescapable. "Casanova is a pretext for a conversation with a spectator, as are many other films of mine, in this case even more so," Fellini said. - Foreword by Leon Steinmetz (my underline)
2) BATTLE OF WRITTEN WORD VS. FILMING. I was moved by this description of Fellini's process and view of the script (from the preface of the printed version):
[Fellini] didn't look at dailies, at rushes, while we were shooting Casanova. He didn't want his ever-fluid, three-dimensional fantasy stilled by its two-dimensional representation.
He felt much the same about the written word. It was there to be changed; at once a conceit and a deceit, an indication for set designers, the costumiers, and the financiers. The written word was for him a participating piece in his game of avoiding the decisive artistic reality until finally the reality crusted relentlessly its birthright upon him.
The battle liberated him. - Preface by lead actor Donald Sutherland (my underline)
3) TETHERING THE "ANXIETY I CAN'T FACE". I often find Fellini scripts difficult to digest. What is he trying to say?
However, I felt more on solid ground in reading that Fellini also had difficulty with this script, that he was delving into "anxieties I can't face" (in #1 above).
Here's a scene that shows how to discuss an ephemeral feeling like anxiety:
- Casanova has just been introduced to the Duke of Matalona.
- Casanova can't remember how they met.
- The Duke invites Casanova to his house.
- I may not know what it's like to be Casanova, but I recognize the anxiety of being cornered.
- The ephemeral feeling of anxiety is tethered to a familiar situation.
INT. MATALONA'S CARRIAGE. NIGHT.
Pressed one against the other on the seat of the duke's carriage, CASANOVA and MATALONA talk. MATALONA displays an odd agitation, like a nagging worry that he is trying vainly to conceal.
MATALONA: Five years ago...no, ten or even more...Forgive my confusion, dear Casanova! You have been to Naples, haven't you?
CASANOVA: Certainly. And if I am not wrong, I've already had the pleasure of meeting you.
MATALONA: The pleasure! No, mine! Only mine! Then...then, though, we didn't see each other very often. I was always by myself, in despair...I suffered the pains of love! You know the pains of love!
CASANOVA nods, as an expert.
CASANOVA: There are sufferings that also give much delight, the delight of being alive, of loving, even though the love unluckily is not reciprocated...
MATALONA: And so it was my case! The woman that I loved passionately was married. But her husband wasn't an obstacle, no; the trouble was that she fell in love with another, who seduced and abandoned her...and I suffered doubly...for my unhappiness and for that of my sweetheart Lucrezia...
CASANOVA frowns, pensive.
CASANOVA: Lucrezia?
MATALONA grows red with anger and suddenly attacks shrilly.
MATALONA: You were that seducer, Casanova!
CASANOVA (raises his voice): I will not tolerate being addressed in this tone!
MATALONA quickly reverts to his hypocritical humility:
MATALONA: I beg your pardon, dear friend. Forgive a poor irascible old man...
He rubs his face and begins speaking again in a quiet tone:
MATALONA: A little later her husband died...My poor Lucrezia agreed to marry me, even though she's never loved me...But now she's my wife. I am taking you to her!
Matalona laughs nervously.
CASANOVA: Duke, frankly I don't understand you. You know our past. I can see you're still jealous. You want to take me to Lucrezia? Why?
MATALONA (in a low voice, almost whispering): Because you are the only one who can get your memory out of her heart...because all these years she's been in love with you...and I want you to speak to her...And moreover I want her to see you again...as you are today. Old! And ugly!
MATALONA stares at CASANOVA with an odd intensity, so that CASANOVA is stunned and speechless.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Though I don't always like Fellini films, I do admire his bold attempts at capturing the ephemeral, indescribable feelings at the edges, like anxiety.
Here, he tries to help the audience by tethering them to reality with a somewhat familiar situation (the protagonist is in a carriage with his former lover's husband), though he adds his own surrealistic twist (the husband wants to use the protagonist to shame his wife).
Fellini's Casanova (1976)
by Federico Fellini & Bernardino Zapponi
Based on the autobiography of Giacomo Casanova
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