User Reviews

Getting close to 1,500 reviews,I started to decide what film to view that stars the ravishingly beautiful Michelle Mercier. While looking for info on Mario Bava's Danger Diabolik,I found out that Giallo queen (and Diabolik star) Marisa Mell appeared in Mercier movie! Which led to me counting the 70 Casanova's.

The plot:

Caught staging a fake break-in after telling his girlfriend he had to go to a NATO meeting, Il maggiore Andrea Rossi-Colombotti is told by his girlfriend Noelle that he is impotent,and only way he can get excited is by staging fake events where his life is at risk. Going to a therapist, Colombotti uncovers his Casanova lust for danger. Trying to hold back,Colombotti finds the eyes of new ladies too tough to resist.

View on the film:

Opening with animated credits, co-writer/(with Agenore Incrocci/Furio Scarpelli/ Tonino Guerra/Giorgio Salvioni and Suso Cecchi D'Amico) director Mario Monicelli & cinematographer Aldo Tonti give this "70" Casanova gallons of 60's chic,with each of Colombotti's brief encounters taking place against a plush 60's backdrop of bright primary colours giving the movie a fluffy atmosphere. Displaying some skin of his leading ladies, Monicelli gives the tales a friendly, cheeky mood,as extended sight-gags bounce around with cartoon sound effects.

Whilst not an "official" anthology title,the writers stray very close to the format,from the mix of each meeting/story Colombotti has with a woman varying from 15 minutes,to in one case under two minutes,and Colombotti's attempts to runaway becoming increasingly peculiar. Leaving no time to give the characters the smallest hint of depth over 110 minutes, the writers make everyone so fleeting that the situation-led jokes dry up before they hit their punchlines,due to their being minimal relationships built with their Casanova.

Unintentionally sending Colombotti on his adventures, Michèle Mercier gives a glamorous performance as Noelle,which stands out thanks to Mercier giving Noelle an awareness of Colombotti's games. Linking each "story" Marcello Mastroianni rids the grating aspects of Colombotti's "troubles" with layers of charm that entices the ladies and the viewer,as Casanova gets to 70.

One-joke premise (Mastroianni can't get aroused sexually unless there is the element of danger involved - that's literally ALL the story is about) is slickly carried out, with location filming around Europe, a jaunty music score, and a parade of luscious 1960s beauties (there is a certain mystique about women on film during that decade that has yet to be recaptured, and probably never will), but the film is too long and not terribly funny, or sexy for that matter. Yet it does feel very "60s", so fans of that cinematic decade will probably enjoy it more than the general population. Warning to Margaret Lee followers: don't be fooled by her being on the Region 2 DVD cover, her role is under a minute long! ** out of 4.

Casanova '70 was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, September 13, 1969. Well, kind of. Chiller Theater temporarily became known as The Saturday Late Show and Bill Cardille hosted the first movie from a living room set. For the second feature, Chilly Billy returned to the Laboratory set. The second movie was Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Woman. This didn't last long but the movies shown were Crazy Desire, No Love for Johnnie, The Reluctant Spy, The 10th Victim and Dingaka before taking a week off for Halloween. The Saturday Late Show continued by showing Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow; The Easy Life; Sins of Casanova; The Success; Red Culottes; Marriage, Italian-Style; Boccaccio '70; The Naked Kiss and The Bigamist. On January 3, 1970, Chiller Theater stopped showing non-horror films and was back to normal. I've always thought that Count Floyd showing non-horror movies likeIngmar Burgma"s Whispers of the Wolf and trying to sell them as scary came from this time. Joe Flaherty was from Pittsburgh and was so complete with his Chiller Theater impression that Count Floyd was often joined by a sidekick known as The Pittsburgh Midget, played by Flaherty's brother Paul Flaherty. He's a nod to Stefan, the Castle Prankster, who was played by Stephen Michael Luncinski on Chiller Theater.

Directed by Mario Monicelli, this may be one of the few movies nominated for an Oscar that played Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater. It's all about NATO officer Andrea Rossi-Colombotti (Marcello Mastroianni), a lover who can only perform with women when he might get killed. His psychiatrist recommends that instead of sex, he seeks out the spiritual and emotional qualities in women. Of course, he's in an Italian comedy, so that's not happening.

He almost marries the religious Gigliola (Virna Lisi) but days before he says "I do," a liontamer (Liana Orfei, who really did that in the circus before being in movies like Mill of the Stone Women) dares any man to kiss her while she's surrounded by the deadly beasts. He can't resist this and is alone again. She tries to stay with him because she's his true love, but he can't ruin her life with his sickness. By the end, she even marries him, even if he can't be cured.

Then again, this movie has so many gorgeous actresses for him to nearly be killed over, including Rosemary Dexter (Marquis de Sade: Justine), Seyna Seyn (Flashman), Jolanda Modio (Face to Face), Margaret Lee (Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die), Moira Orfei (the queen of the Italian circus who was known as Moira of the Elephants), Beba Loncar (Some Girls Do), Michèle Mercier (Web of the Spider) and Marisa Mell (Marta) in her first Italian film.

Mario Monicelli's Casanova '70 is an utterly pretentious farce.

But this farce is executed with such an innovative storyline, and such great acting by Marcello Mastroianni, and a production that exudes style and class at every turn, that this farce is transformed in an very effective piece of cinematic storytelling, The ultimate coup de theatre in this rather convoluted, and improbable tale is the court scene, where the Major's whole amorous history is put "on trial", replete with a witness list that includes not only all of his sympathetic former love interests, but his psychiatrist too, who is all too happy to tell the court about his patient's rather peculiar, and hilarious "sexual hang up".

The cinematography is really good too, as it scans across the widely divergent settings that make this film so interesting to view.

Mastroianni, in his very effective comic portrayal shows us yet another aspect of the great breadth of his acting abilities that qualifies him as one of the all time greats.