09 October 2021

Casanova (1927)

The closing event of Le giornate del Cinema Muto, the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, is Casanova/The Loves of Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927) in a new 4k restoration from the Cinémathèque française. The Orchestra San Marco di Pordenone will perform the world premiere of Günter Buchwald’s score for this silent classic. Casanova (1927) features the legendary Russian star Ivan Mozzhukhin in his most famous role as the well-known Venetian adventurer, lover, poet, inventor, and libertine. Tomorrow, 10 October, there will be a replica of tonight's event.

Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3948/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Ufa. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1604/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Deulig. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1604/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Deulig. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4621/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Diana Karenne in Casanova (1927)
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 928. Photo: Société des Cineromans / Micheluzzi-Verleih / Cine Alliance Film. Diana Karenne in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Always in the service of women


Casanova shows Ivan Mozzhukhin at his best and most light-hearted. In the film he makes everything seem easy. As you can notice on the postcards, his name was spelled Ivan Mosjoukine in French, Iwan Mosjukin in German, and Ivan Mosjoukine in English.

The film is a far-from-accurate biopic of the legendary Italian lover. Casanova is episodic in structure, almost like a collection of short stories. Venice, 1760. Giovanni Giacomo Casanova, the unscrupulous and impecunious philanderer deluxe is in danger of the rope. From Venice, he travels to Russia and is received at the Russian court as Monsieur Dupont, a French dressmaker. But his amours in St. Petersburg are not exactly pleasing to the mighty Catherine.

Casanova feels that there is trouble in store when a screen falls revealing him embracing Countess Maria Mari. The great admirer of fair ladies then is ordered by Catherine to be imprisoned. Casanova believes that almost any moment his end may come. His nerve does not fail him, however, for when he is ordered to report under escort to Catherine, he slips into a conveyance in which is the Countess and drives away pursued by the infuriated Count.

Casanova succeeds in returning to Venice, where he has other love affairs and consequently more trouble. He is always in the service of women, as he puts it in a letter to a man he has good-naturedly robbed. In the end, all his romancing catches up with him, and he is forced to choose between two women.

Though partly shot on location in Venice, Casanova was a French-German production. The production companies were Ciné-Alliance (France), Deulig Europa-Produktion (Germany) and Société des Cinéromans. Director Alexandre Volkoff was one of a significant number of film industry exiles who fled Russia following the Bolshevik takeover. Volkoff worked in France for many years, and also made films in Germany and Italy. He gave the film a wonderful visual style, with one long scene filmed in colour.

The film presented a pan-European cast. Casanova's delectable females include for instance French actress Suzanne Bianchetti as Catherine II the Great, Italian diva Diana Karenne as Maria Mari, Duchess de Lardi, Polish-born Rina De Liguoro as Corticelli, and German star Jenny Jugo as the lovely Therese who finally captures the protagonist's heart.

Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 83/1. Photo: Ufa. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Diana Karenne and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 83/2. Photo: Ufa. Diana Karenne and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927). This scene was shot near the Venice cemetery Isola di San Michele.

Ivan Mozzhukhin and Jenny Jugo in Casanova (1927)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 83/4. Photo: Ufa. Ivan Mozzhukhin and Jenny Jugo in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Rina De Liguoro and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 83/5. Photo: Ufa. Rina De Liguoro and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Diana Karenne and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 83/6. Photo: Ufa. Diana Karenne and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Rina De Liguoro in Casanova (1927)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3357/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Ufa. Rina De Liguoro in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

One of the true divas


Highlights of Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927) include the spectacular Carnival of Venice sequence and the splendiferous scenes within the palace walls of Czarina Catherine. Pictured on one of the Ross postcards above (no. 83/2) is a carnival scene with the Italian lover and his catch Maria, the Duchess de Lardi. The scene on the postcard was shot near the Venice cemetery Isola di San Michele.

Maria was played by Polish actress Diana Karenne, one of the true divas of Italian silent cinema. Between 1916 and 1920, Karenne fascinated European audiences with her eccentric dresses and make-up, and with her prima donna behaviour.

With its panoramic location photography and its lavish re-creation of decadent 18th century Venice, the visual style of Casanova is wonderful. The public follows Ivan Mozzhukhin through various chases, rescues, romantic liaisons, and hairbreadth escapes and this makes this silent version of Casanova a spectacular, picaresque epic.

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "The film ran into some curious censorship troubles in the U.S., and as result, it was retitled Prince of Adventurers, with the main character rechristened as 'Roberto Ferrara'!"

However, the critic of The New York Times (30 April 1929), Mordaunt Hall, loved the film: "Only seven of the original fifteen or more reels are offered over here, but, except for a few passages that have been sheared too short to convey their full meaning, this picture still affords a good entertainment. In Paris, due to its extraordinary length, it was exhibited in two installments on different days. Although some of the episodes are humorously extravagant, the producers have caught the spirit of that eighteenth-century Italian poet and adventure."

Diana Karenne in Casanova
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 133. Photo: Distr. S.A.G. Leoni. Diana Karenne in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Diana Karenne and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no 134. Photo: Distr. S.A.G. Leoni. Diana Karenne and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927)
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 136. Photo: Distr. S.A.G. Leoni. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Rina De Liguoro in Casanova
Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 3519. Rina De Liguoro in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Rina De Liguoro and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927)
Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 3522. Rina De Liguoro and Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927)
French postcard by Europe, no. 175. Photo: Société des Cinéromans. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Diana Karenne in Casanova
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 928. Photo: Société des Cineromans / Micheluzzi-Verleih / Cine Alliance Film. Diana Karenne in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927)
Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 929. Photo: Société des Cinéromans / Cine Alliance Film / Micheluzzi-Verleih. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (1927)
Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 930. Photo: Ciné Alliance Film / Micheluzzi-Verleih / Societè des Cineromans. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Casanova (Alexandre Volkoff, 1927).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Mordaunt Hall (The New York Times), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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