“I like Monty Python.” That’s what director Lasse Halström said at a press event last month -- and then it clicked, and I was like, Okay, so that’s where his new film, Casanova, is springing from. Cuz “Halström” and “farce” aren’t two words that generally go together, and neither are “Halström” and “geek touchstone” (though as I listened to him speak, I was suddenly reminded of the profound affect his My Life as a Dog had on me as a geeky kid, the likening of adolescent angst to the tragedy of a doomed dog circling the Earth in a space capsule). But Casanova is sharply, satirically funny, less like the work of the Pythons itself -- though it does feature an Inquisition that nobody expects -- than like something else that was inspired by them: The Princess Bride.
Hey, I’m as surprised as you are by that little fact, but look: Casanova has...
fencing...
fighting...
chases...
escapes...
giants...
disguises...
true love...
and even an impressive clergyman.
And I swear, there’s a moment when someone could have said, “Have you considered lechery? You’d make an excellent Dread Lover Casanova.”
Sienna Miller, who plays Casanova’s true love, Francesca, says that remembering not to nudge-and-wink and to play the straight woman was “the hardest aspect of making the film... apart from the corset.” Heath Ledger didn’t say anything, cuz I didn’t get to meet him. But I did share an elevator at the junket hotel with him. He didn’t say anything in the elevator, either.
Anyway, read my review of the film, and then go see it. If you’re any kind of geek like me, you won’t be sorry.
