MOVIE: I, DON GIOVANNI

In I, Don Giovanni, Spanish director Carlos Saura (Raise Ravens) portrays life imitating art – backdrops resemble paintings, extras pose like figures in a still-life drawing. For the most part, the film is handsomely crafted… yet certain elements of Saura’s production are less polished – props are discernibly two-dimensional, set pieces wobble. Was Saura ‘making do’ with a limited budget or was this is a concerted, artistic decision to reveal the film’s contrivances? The answer is irrelevant because the film’s cheap and lavish visuals are perfectly complementary and provide a satisfyingly surreal flavour. In 1763, Lorenzo da Ponte (Lorenzo Balducci) – writer and protégé of infamous libertine Giacomo Casanova (Tobias Moretti) – is leading a sacrilegious existence until the Church exiles him from Venice. Relocating to Vienna, da Ponte is hired by composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Lino Guanciale) to write the libretto for an opera about notorious lothario ‘Don Giovanni’, whose legend strangely echoes da Ponte’s cavalier past. Like many period pieces, I, Don Giovanni occasionally feels stuffy and drawn-out. Thankfully, it’s also well acted and incredibly pretty. Opera enthusiasts will especially be rewarded by the extended, and immaculately staged, opera sequences. (JH)