Casanova (1919)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Casanova
Original title Casanova
Country of production Austria-Hungary
original language Hungarian
Publishing year 1919
Rod
Director Alfréd Deésy
script László Békeffy
József Pakots
Izsó Barna
Jenö Faragó
production “Star” Filmfabrik und Filmvertriebs AG Budapest-Vienna
camera Karl Vass
occupation

Casanova is an Austro-Hungarian silent film made in Hungarian in 1917 with Bela Lugosi in the title role.

action

The aging Casanova, dream of countless broken hearts for girls and women, is on its last legs and looks back sadly. To do this, he flips through his album of memories, which has at least one woman's name on each page. Eventually he slips there, but he lives on in the memories of his female conquests. When the factory owner's daughter Susanne Hilmer leafed through his memoirs and her desire and longing for this romantic and elegant lover grew, the rococo man emerged from the cool crypt of his final resting place and awoke to new life. The resurrected one has the shape of a modern Casanova, dressed in the latest fashion and calls himself the knight Heinrich Holanden. As this person Casanova now enters the life of Susanne Hilmer, the daughter of a very wealthy factory owner.

One day Susanne and her father go on a boat trip. A gust of wind blows Hilmer's hat overboard, and Holanden, quite a gentleman, jumps into the water to fish out his hat. In view of such gallantry, Susanne is blown away by the handsome gentleman. When the ship has docked on the shore of an island, Hilmer and daughter Susanne are already expected by the other daughter Margarete and her groom Mario. You go to Villa Hilmers on this island, where Susanne soon gives in to the amorous advances of Holandens / Casanovas. But Margarete, too, is entranced by the elegant handsome and sinks into his arms when her fiancé Mario has to leave the property at short notice for business reasons. Susanne witnesses this romance and, deeply disappointed, takes her own life. Then Margarete took refuge in a serious illness. When Mario returns to the island, Casanova has already run away.

He is already looking for new love adventures and finds a new “victim” in the hatter Ninette. Casanova also wants to get rid of her quickly after a night of love and offers her money as compensation. When Ninette then also wants to seek the way to suicide and is on the way into the water, she is saved at the last moment by her bridegroom Paul. Meanwhile, Casanova takes on a new identity and calls itself Karl Rensky. He is now a lieutenant in the bodyguard and stays in the house of the couple Artois. His masculine appearance and bold demeanor quickly get the countess going. When he plucks a flower for her sake from a mountain peak that is difficult to reach and gives it to her, the noblewoman flows along and sinks into Casanovas / Rensky's arms. The count suspiciously observes the adulterous goings-on and is determined to put an end to the spook: the horned man shoots the rival, but his wife throws herself in front of Casanova and intercepts the bullet. She is killed in the process, while Casanova / Rensky only bears one wound. The eternal lover must be hospitalized.

There another lady lovingly takes care of Casanova, who is tied to the sickbed. Her name is Livia, she is a widowed baroness and devotedly cares for the recovering seriously injured. Livia's nature and character are marked by great purity, and sincere feelings soon awaken in the eternal Womanizer for the first time. During a romantic excursion by car, the two are discovered by Mario, Margarete's groom. He has sworn revenge and finally wants to stop Casanova's misdeeds. During his short-term absence, Mario uses the opportunity and informs the good-hearted baroness about Casanova's misdeeds. A little later, overjoyed, Casanova rushes to his loved one, but he finds her lying lifeless, pierced by a bullet. Livia couldn't stand the shame and killed herself. Bent over her corpse, the heartbreaker breaks down crying. She was the only one Casanova had ever loved and at the same time the only one he couldn't have. Deeply bent, he returns to his crypt, aging a little with every step, until he is completely the Casanova from the Rococo again. Then he closes the crypt door behind him forever.

Production notes

Casanova was written in Budapest in 1917, had a length of five or six acts and was premiered on January 18, 1919 in the Hungarian capital. In Germany, the strip started on August 22, 1919 in Berlin's marble house . Casanova was 2527 or 2280 meters long, depending on the version.

Bela Lugosi was still called Arisztid Olt back then. The buildings come from Stefan Lhotka , who was then run as Lhotka Szirontai in his home country.

Web links