|
|
 |
|
Next, he saves a damsel in distress, and offers to accompany her back to Venice. While riding in the coach with her, he learns she is Henriette's daughter. Richard Chamberlain gives one of his finest, and most moving performances, when he learns she is also HIS daughter, Jacqueline, (Sophie Ward).
by Judy Crocker
|
Casanova! What a guy! What a film! The sensational Richard Chamberlain, plays the handsome, romantic, womanizer, Giacomo Casanova, taking you on a fast-paced romp across Europe, climbing up the rungs of high-society, while seducing every beautiful woman in his path. Casanova was a resourceful and intelligent adventurer, who in his lifetime wore many hats. He was a lawyer, priest, gambler, soldier, prisoner, magician, and the world's most renowned LOVER! Richard Chamberlain gave an outstanding performance, as the lustful, legendary Casanova. Just as in real life, the women he encountered loved him the instant they saw him. The rascal rogue, truly loved women, and everything about them. He loved their underwear, their lace, their scent, and the way they moved. He made them all feel exquisite and beautiful! Thus, the randy rogue was able to have his way with them all. No one can master a love scene, nor steam up the screen like the passionate Richard Chamberlain. Together, he and Ornella Muti (Henriette), were absolute perfection, glazing a wonderful on-screen chemistry, like fine sweet, powdered confection. Henriette was the love of his life, and the only woman he offered to marry, but he lost her because he was unable to stay faithful. The honorable Henriette was not able to stay with a man she found false. 
After losing his Henriette, Casanova became reckless, corrupting public morals, seducing other men's wives, trafficking in foreign governments, reading forbidden books, practicing white magic, getting himself disbarred from law, expelled from the church, and considered an enemy of the public good. He was thrown into the Leads, a maximum security prison, where he was to serve a life sentence. Always plotting, the conniving Casanova, along with a fellow prisoner, became the first man to ever escape from the Leads. This feat, added to his already notorious reputation, caused him to be even more fascinating to women. He was also able to gain the confidence ot the King (Jean-Pierre Cassel), by brilliantly devising a lottery, which put a great deal of money into the king's coffers, and his own! He also romanced and swindled, the richest woman in France, Madame D'Urfe (Faye Dunaway), promising her eternal youth with his White Magic. When his scheme goes awry, he bids adieu to Paris, losing his fortune, and his very dearest friend. 
In the end, we see an elderly Casanova, still handsome and randy, writing his memoirs. The movie, we learn has been an exciting run-through, of the romantic Venetian's life. His autobiography, a 12 page treatise, entitled HISTORY OF MY LIFE, sadly confirms that the great lover learned many valuable lessons too late. He discovered that it was one thing to MAKE a fortune, and quite another to HOLD onto it. It was one thing to MAKE LOVE to a woman, and quite another to really be IN LOVE. His final lament, "What I have missed, if only I had NOT been CASANOVA."