Federico Fellini was never likely to turn the story of Casanova into a standard period drama and the resulting film – sprawling over 155 interminable minutes – is quite unique in its heavily stylised visual form and its strange and deliberately un-erotic tone.
Fellini’s own dislike of the character means that Donald Sutherland is required to play the legendary lover as a ludicrous figure who only becomes sympathetic at the end when he attains a measure of self-realisation and is allowed to go off into the mists of history with a mechanical doll.
It was a trying experience for Sutherland, who had to wear extensive makeup and shave his head, but his performance, for all the grotesquerie, is ultimately very moving.
Giacomo Casanova
Donald Sutherland
Henriette
Tina Aumont
Mme D’Urfe
Cicely Browne
Mme Charpillon
Carmen Scarpitta
Marcolina
Clara Algranti
Giselda
Daniela Gatti
Sister Maddalena
Margareth Clementi
Isabella
Olimpia Carlisi
Silvana
Silvana Fusacchia
Barberina
Chesty Morgan
Mechanical doll
Adele Angela Lojodice
Giantess
Sandy Allen
Anna-Maria
Clarissa Mary Rol
Dubois
Daniel Emilfork
Pope
Luigi Zerbinati
Prince of Brando
Hans van den Hoek
Duke of Würtemberg
Dudley Sutton
Lord Talou
John Karlsen
Faulkircher
Reggie Nalder
Director
Frederico Fellini