Continually stretching his acting muscles, John Malkovich brings a gravitas few other actors can offer. For Casanova Variations, which is finally getting a release today after touring festivals, the actor gets experimental in meta fashion. Coming from director Michael Sturminger, the story follows Italy’s infamous womanizer Giacomo Casanova in what has been described as cinematic adaptation of a “chamber opera play.”
However, that’s only one strand of the story, as it also stars Malkovich preparing for the stage play, with references of his past work. Today we’re pleased to premiere an exclusive from the film, which depicts a scene from the performance, leading to a duel. Looking like a playful retelling of the Italian adventurer’s life, as well as an ideal showcase for Malkovich’s chops, see our exclusive clip below along with the trailer for the film also starring Veronica Ferres, Florian Boesch, Miah Persson, Lola Naymark, Kerstin Avemo, and Tracy Ann Oberman,
Casanova (John Malkovich, Dangerous Liaisons, Burn After Reading) has accepted the Duke of Waldstein’s proposal; he’s the librarian of the Castle of Dux, in Bohemia. At the end of his life, he begins to write his memoirs. This is where he receives Elisa von der Recke’s (Veronica Ferres, Salt And Fire, Pay The Ghost) visit, who is very interested in his manuscript. Casanova doesn’t recognize in the features of this charming woman, a girl he had seduced in the past and who had wanted to die for him. For the famous libertine, the arrival of Elisa is both stimulating, the opportunity to start a new challenge (to conquer her) and threatening (he questions himself about the motivation of the traveler).
Is she there to be entrusted with the text and publish it? Is she driven by curiosity, concerned about what he could have delivered about their affair? Does she intend to read the coveted text to be inspired to write an incriminating biography herself as she did for Cagliostro in a very successful book? Elisa raises in her host both a burst of carefree life and the lucid weariness of a tired body that fears death.
Casanova Variations arrives today on Digital HD.