"Casanova" or "The Prince of Adventurers" or "The Loves of Casanova" is a French/German co-production from 1927, so this one is from between the two great wars of the 20th century and it has its 90th anniversary this year. With this age, it is a black-and-white silent film of course. The original is in French, but as always with the more known foreign-language silent films, it is not too difficult to find a copy with English intertitles. It is a pretty long movie, easily makes it past the 2-hour-mark. It was directed by Alexandre Volkoff and he is also one of the writers working on this one. His co-writer is the Russian-born Ivan Mozzhukhin and he also plays the title character. Casanova is still a character today that most people have heard of and the only thing he is really known for is what a master of seduction he was. So it is not really a surprise that most of the supporting cast here are women. Occasionally, the film also tries to focus on other aspects of his life, but I don't think it was really successful from that perspective, about everything other than the romance aspect.
Also I am not sure how historically significant Casanova was and if he deserves to be in the center of a biopic. Anyway, I guess there is a reason why he is not really part of modern movies these days as I cannot remember having heard of or read about a new Casanova movie or one in recent decades. I guess taking that into account, I don't think they did too much of a bad job here. But I am also not really certain how much of what we know about Casanova's life is really accurate in the sense of that it happened that way. I am pretty sure a lot has faded throughout the centuries. I also believe that the subject of the film would have turned out more interesting I guess with sound and color, but also with a more open mind about sexuality that certainly did not exist in the 1920s yet, especially not when it comes to film. So yeah, perhaps the plot and main character weren't ready yet for a movie adaptation. The consequence is that most of the characters aren't too interesting and that the film drags on more than just a few occasions. The lead actor also was not good enough to carry the film on his shoulders. Overall, the weak is more frequent than the strong. I give this film a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
Also I am not sure how historically significant Casanova was and if he deserves to be in the center of a biopic. Anyway, I guess there is a reason why he is not really part of modern movies these days as I cannot remember having heard of or read about a new Casanova movie or one in recent decades. I guess taking that into account, I don't think they did too much of a bad job here. But I am also not really certain how much of what we know about Casanova's life is really accurate in the sense of that it happened that way. I am pretty sure a lot has faded throughout the centuries. I also believe that the subject of the film would have turned out more interesting I guess with sound and color, but also with a more open mind about sexuality that certainly did not exist in the 1920s yet, especially not when it comes to film. So yeah, perhaps the plot and main character weren't ready yet for a movie adaptation. The consequence is that most of the characters aren't too interesting and that the film drags on more than just a few occasions. The lead actor also was not good enough to carry the film on his shoulders. Overall, the weak is more frequent than the strong. I give this film a thumbs-down. Not recommended.