Casanova

Sis has problems of her own. Francesca (Sienna Miller) is secretly a much-published and much-read author who pulls such stunts as posing as a man in order to speak before the local university. But feminist or not, she's the victim of an arranged marriage because otherwise, her financially beleaguered family will lose their house and their status. And so she awaits the arrival of the corpulent "lard king" of Genoa, Paprizzio (Oliver Platt). Platt has almost as much fun as Ledger in this film, reveling in 18th century shenanigans. From the moment he steps off his boat and mistakes Francesca and Giovanni's mother (Lena Olin) for his betrothed, the stage is set for the mismatches and misunderstandings to resolve themselves. But not before the Chief Inquisitor from the church rides into town and tries to clean things up. Jeremy Irons plays the Inquisitor as broadly as the tone of this film,

No scene seems as ripe with "Zorro" action as when the Inquisitor is presiding over the public execution of the fabled lover, or when Casanova passes on his cloak and gentleman's walking stick to another, with this simple advice: "Be the flame, not the moth." Words to live by!

Video:
"Casanova" is presented in 1080p High Definition at an aspect ratio of 2.40:1. As I said before, the picture looks great. There's plenty of detail, and not just in close-ups. Even the long shots hold the detail, with a sharpness and full range of colors that makes the city of Venice and the costume pageantry really come to life.

Audio:
The main soundtrack is English 5.1 uncompressed (48kHz, 16-bit), with additional options in standard 5.1 English, French, and Spanish Dolby Digital. The pure, uncompressed sound is bright and powerful, a fitting complement to the bold visuals. There's plenty of rear-speaker action during action scenes, and the sound washes naturally across the viewing space. Subtitles are in English SDH, French, and Spanish.

Extras:
The audio commentary by director Hallstrom is quite good. We learn mostly about the ins and outs of trying to film in Venice, where the water table can vary significantly enough to change plenty of shots, and where the film crew horrified locals by bringing horses onto St. Mark's Square ("Anything associated with the land makes them uncomfortable"). Two short features are also quite good, and show plenty of behind-the-scenes footage. One of them is a straight "making of" feature, while the other focuses on costume design.

Now, normally I'm not a fan of the short films by Louie Schwartzberg that Buena Vista has contracted for their Blu-ray series. But the additional footage of Venice shot by Schwartzberg is really welcome. It's a fascinating city that's filmed in an interesting way by the award-winning director, so that you feel as if you're the one taking a gondola ride.

Bottom Line:
"Casanova" is a fun historical comedy/action film in the manner of "The Mask of Zorro." The script is solid, the actors clearly have fun with it, and the location Venice photography makes you want to phone your travel agent.

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