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The world of Casanova and Fellini: the meeting with Gianfranco Angelucci

Venice, March 22nd, 2025. “Fellini is present, embodied by one of his closest collaborators”: these were the words used by the professor and film critic Anton Giulio Mancino to open the special program designed to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Giacomo Casanova's birth, The World of Casanova and Fellini, held on the afternoon of the festival’s second-to-last day. The Auditorium welcomed a special guest: writer, director, journalist, and professor Gianfranco Angelucci. A longtime friend and collaborator of Federico Fellini, Angelucci even wrote the screenplay for Fellini’s 1987 film Intervista.

Angelucci immediately addressed the young people in the audience, telling them about how his professor’s suggestion to write a thesis on Fellini turned out to be “one of those once-in-a-lifetime chances.” It gave him the opportunity to personally meet the director from Rimini, of whom he later painted a portrait dwelling, particularly on the relationship with the main character of Fellini’s Casanova (1976). His account of events, detailed and captivating, began with Fellini’s early thoughts on Casanova, whom he considered “very unpleasant”. He also included some anecdotes, like the moment when the clairvoyant Gustavo Rol made appear a letter – allegedly written by Casanova himself – in the director’s breast pocket. The author of the letter addressed him as “capocomico” (theatre company lead) and playfully offered him some erotic advice.

The conversation then shifted to a project by Angelucci and Liliane Betti, which Mancino described as an almost paradoxical work, a “backstage that comes before the film itself”. This project is the documentary E il Casanova di Fellini? (1975), of which the opening minutes were screened. The initiative brought together some of the greatest people of Italian cinema, from Alberto Sordi to Marcello Mastroianni, to reflect on the multifaceted character of Casanova, from the romantic perspective to the grotesque one. Angelucci recalled the behind-the-scenes of Il Casanova di Federico Fellini, describing Fellini's relationship with lead actor Donald Sutherland, but above all, the director's genius and almost magical approach to the film: “Federico had to transfer his soul to us [...] he didn't want to depict the chatty Casanova, but rather the one at the end of an era.” Lastly, the guest made an important appeal to “recover something that we are losing: something that the great artists have given us”. Angelucci's last words, dedicated to remembering the legendary director and his legacy, were met with a long round of applause from the audience, bringing the event to a close.

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