Fellini's version of the life of Casanova issimilar to an effulgent carnival. The film is permeated with a grandiosestyle, so brilliant in visual effects that the sexuality of the herobecomes more comic than concupiscent. Although Fellini had read most, ifnot all, of Casanova's autobiography (twelve volumes!), he makes theepisodes of seduction a showcase for his own philosophies of life fromyouth to old age. The casting, mostly from open calls, exhibits thedirector's quest for unusual faces; Casanova is a gallery of grotesques.There seems to be some conjecture about how Donald Sutherland was castas Casanova, because his enactment of the role is strictly symbolic. Theopening sequence of the film, with its stunning imagery of Venice atcarnival time, the gigantic head of Venus rising from the Grand Canal,prepares one for an onslaught of memorable images. Casanova's priapicadventures are not romantic, they are demonic revelries, sinisterfreak-shows. The film's American distributor insisted on a dubbedEnglish soundtrack-for American devotees of Fellini's films, as criminala distortion as wrapping the Pietà in chintz. In this Softitledversion, Casanova should revive itself as Fellini's most extravagant andcourageous dream.-Albert Johnson