His other well-known films include La Strada (1954), Nights of Cabiria (1957), 8½ (1963), Juliet of the Spirits (1965), the "Toby Dammit" segment of Spirits of the Dead (1968), Fellini Satyricon (1969), Roma (1972), Amarcord (1973), and Fellini's Casanova (1976). He received an honorary award for Lifetime Achievement at the 65th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. His films have ranked highly in critical polls such as that of Cahiers du Cinéma and Sight & Sound, which lists his 1963 film 8 + 1⁄ 2 as the 10th-greatest film.įor La Dolce Vita Fellini won the Palme d'Or additionally, he was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, and won four in the category of Best Foreign Language Film, the most for any director in the history of the Academy. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Sutherland is simply magnificent in his honesty and simplicity in his character portrayal.Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI ( Italian: 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness.
Federico started feeling sorry for Casanova, because he did not know how to love someone. The scene below was added by Fellini once he saw Donald's work in the nun scene. Actor and director choices merge into a beautifully stark, funny, poignant and painful portrait of a much admired man.
The decadence of the sets, costumes, music contrasts luminously with Sutherland's sophisticated, witty and gentle performance. Once you understand the creative fight between actor and director the films true beauty emerge. The result is a beautifully twisted, disturbing, haunting portrait of a much admired historical lothario. Fellini sought to portray Giacomo as a disgusting, lued, power hungry social climber. Sutherland sought to make him wise, dignified and smart. I could not understand Sutherland's marvelous contrasting character choices which elevated the performance until I read that Frederico and Donald clashed bitterly throughout the production about how to portray Casanova. Donald looks like a transvestite after a drunken brawl. Frederico meanwhile forces Donald into brassieres, facial makeup, partly shaved forehead with curly golden locks of hair on the sides of his head blend to make a truly unique character portrait of a well documented historical figure. Viewing Sutherland's masterful work in which I see he is desperately and vainly trying to portray Giacomo as graceful, beautiful, wise, talented and sensitive. The titanic arguments that erupted during filming between two massively gifted artists created a unique well rounded portrait a very complex man. Donald being a truly gifted actor sought to add an elegance to Casanova that was not in the script. Once Fellini began writing he started feeling pity for Casanova. Instead of rowing a boat in water Fellini has Sutherland dip his oars into black plastic sheets in hurricane level squalls which at first I thought, this film has a very small budget, then as I drowned in Federico's mad fantasy I realized that Fellini's Casanova was being consumed by his own lifeless desires.įederico stated that he hated Giacomo Casanova and sought to show his deceitful, boastful, arrogance. Fellini's Casanova is visually arresting, disturbingly satirical and an artistic marvel. Starring Donald Sutherland, Tina Aumont and Daniel Emilfork among many others. Il Casanova di Federico Fellini - Fellini's Casanova (1976) is a magnificent portrait of a complex historical figure. "For to understand them and to love them one must suffer at their hands".