''Don Giovanni'' is a 1979 French-Italian film directed by

Joseph Losey Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American theatre and film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Blackliste ...

. It is an adaptation of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's classic 1787 opera ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

'', based on the

Don Juan Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni (Italian), is a legendary, fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. Famous versions of the story include a 17th-century play, '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra'' ...

legend of a seducer, destroyed by his excesses. The opera itself has been called one of Mozart's "trio of masterpieces". The film stars

Ruggero Raimondi Ruggero Raimondi (born 3 October 1941) is an Italian bass-baritone opera singer who has also appeared in motion pictures. Life and career Early training and career Ruggero Raimondi was born in Bologna, Italy, during World War II. His voice matu ...

in the title role, and the conductor is

Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel (, March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in th ...

. Nearly three decades after the film's release,

Nicholas Wapshott Nicholas Henry Wapshott (born 13 January 1952) is a British journalist, broadcaster and author. He was most recently the opinion editor at Newsweek, and a Reuters contributing columnist on the political economy. He has been an online content co ...

called it a "near perfect amalgamation of opera and the screen".

Plot

After an unsuccessful attempt to seduce Donna Anna (

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

Edda Moser Edda Moser (born 27 October 1938) is a German operatic soprano. She was particularly well known for her interpretations of music by Mozart. Her 1973 recital LP ' received the Grand Prix du Disque. Life and career Moser was born in Berlin, th ...

), Don Giovanni (

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

) kills her father ''Il Commendatore'' (bass John Macurdy). The next morning, Giovanni meets Donna Elvira (soprano Kiri Te Kanawa), a woman he previously seduced and abandoned. Later, Giovanni happens upon the preparations for a peasant wedding and tries to seduce the bride-to-be Zerlina (

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...

Teresa Berganza Teresa Berganza Vargas OAXS (16 March 1933 – 13 May 2022) was a Spanish mezzo-soprano. She is most closely associated with roles such as Rossini's Rosina and La Cenerentola, and later Bizet's Carmen, admired for her technical virtuosity, m ...

), but his ambition is frustrated by Donna Elvira. Donna Anna soon realizes that Giovanni killed her father, and she pursues the seducer along with her fiance Don Ottavio (

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

Kenneth Riegel Kenneth Riegel (born 19 April 1938) is an American opera tenor. Life and career Riegel was born on 19 April 1938 in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania. He made his theatrical début as the Alchemist in ''König Hirsch'' at Santa Fe Opera in 1965, debutin ...

). Ever ready to attempt a seduction, Giovanni woos Elvira's maid. As part of his plans, he switches clothes with his servant Leporello (

bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing thr ...

José van Dam Joseph, Baron Van Damme (born 27 August 1940 in Brussels), known as José van Dam, is a Belgian bass-baritone. At the age of 17, he entered the Brussels Royal Conservatory and studied with Frederic Anspach. A year later, he graduated with diplo ...

), who rapidly finds himself in trouble with people who mistake him for his master. Leporello flees and eventually meets Giovanni at the cemetery where ''Il Commendatore'' is buried. They jokingly invite the statue at his grave to dinner. While they are dining, the supernaturally animated statue arrives, and the horrified Giovanni is drawn into an open-pit fire.

Production

In the opera, the action supposedly takes place in Spain, but Mozart's librettist

Lorenzo Da Ponte Lorenzo Da Ponte (; 10 March 174917 August 1838) was an Italian, later American, opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's most celebrated operas: ''The Marr ...

wrote in Italian, and this film uses locations in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

and

Murano Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about north of Venice and measures about across with a population of just over 5,000 (2004 figures). It is famous for its glass making. It was on ...

. In particular, the film features buildings by

Palladio Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of th ...

in and around the city of

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a th ...

(

Basilica Palladiana The Basilica Palladiana is a Renaissance building in the central Piazza dei Signori in Vicenza, north-eastern Italy. The most notable feature of the edifice is the loggia, which shows one of the first examples of what have come to be known as ...

Villa Rotonda Villa La Rotonda is a Renaissance villa just outside Vicenza in northern Italy designed by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. The villa's correct name is Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana, but it is also known as "La Rotonda", "Villa Rot ...

and

Teatro Olimpico The Teatro Olimpico ("Olympic Theatre") is a theatre in Vicenza, northern Italy, constructed in 1580–1585. The theatre was the final design by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and was not completed until after his death. The ...

). The singers recorded their performances separately, and lip-synched in their film performances. As Noel Megahey notes, ""dragging the orchestra of the Opéra de Paris around the locations for the length of the production for a live recording is completely unfeasible". Review of the DVD that details the difficulties of filming the opera. The total budget for the film was about $7,000,000. Article about the production of the film published shortly before its release.

Reception

The film is not a recording of a stage performance but "an original interpretation of the opera on film". Using the original libretto and music, it was directed as a musical film with a series of scenes, each using multiple cameras and takes. Four years earlier, Losey had directed a film version of Bertolt Brecht's play ''Galileo'' using a similar approach; Reginald Beck had also edited the earlier film, along with many others directed by Losey. The

cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...

is lush with many scenes set in visually appealing locations, such as the

gondolas The gondola (, ; vec, góndoła ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull ...

gliding through the canals of

. Following the 1979 theatrical release of the film,

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

complimented the singing but concluded that the filming "didn't work". He found the filmed closeups of the singers to be mostly jarring and ineffective. On the other hand,

Judith Martin Judith Martin (née Perlman; born September 13, 1938), better known by the pen name Miss Manners, is an American columnist, author, and etiquette authority. Early life and career Martin is the daughter of Helen and Jacob Perlman. Her father w ...

considered it successful. In 2007,

wrote that "One near perfect amalgamation of opera and the screen is Joseph Losey's ''Don Giovanni''".

Reginald Beck Reginald Beck (5 February 1902 – 12 July 1992) was a British film editor with forty-nine credits from 1932 to 1985. He is noted primarily for films done with Laurence Olivier in the 1940s and with Joseph Losey in the 1960s and 1970s. He was t ...

won the 1980

César Award for Best Editing The César Award for Best Editing (french: César du meilleur montage) is one of the annual César Awards given by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma. Eligible films are usually in the French language. Winners and nominees 1970s ...

, and

Alexandre Trauner Alexandre Trauner (born Sándor Trau; 3 August 1906 in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary, Hungary – 5 December 1993 in Omonville-la-Petite, France) was a Hungarian film production designer. After studying painting at Hungarian University of Fin ...

won for Production Design.

Home media

A Blu-ray and a region 1 DVD were released by Olive Films in 2013.

References

External links