Exposition Casanova - La grande illusion

The anniversary exhibition of Federico Fellini's Casanova (1976 - 2026) is an immersion in the making of one of the Maestro's greatest masterpieces. Original documents - drawings, screenplays, the director's handwritten diary, photographs of the shoot and film posters - reveal a conflicted adaptation that casts the famous Venetian seducer as an anti-hero. In this sumptuous film, where dreams, the unconscious and secret references to the work of Dante Alighieri come to the fore, the pictorial side of the film once again orients Venice towards its glorious status as a city-chemere.

Thanks to the partnership of Reinhold Jaretzky Zauberbergfilm and documents from the making of Reinhhold Jaretzky's film Giacomo Casanova: much more than a Don Juan, the exhibition offers a double portrait of the adventurer who became a legend in his own lifetime: Fellini's free adaptation confronts the self-portrait that Giacomo Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt, patiently constructed and often invented in his monumental memoirs, entitled Histoire de ma vie.

The grand illusion is the common theme of two characters who share the same name, but whom everything seems to oppose. This dialogue between cinema and literature also includes music. Fellini's Casanova is not only a dreamlike fresco, but also a vast musical composition by Nino Rota. As for the Venetian adventurer, it's worth remembering that he collaborated with Lorenzo Da Ponte on the libretto for Mozart's Don Juan.

The exhibition takes us on a journey through time and the arts, with a freedom that neither Fellini nor the Chevalier de Seingalt would have denied, as they travelled through the Europe of the Age of Enlightenment.

50th anniversary exhibition of the film Il Casanova di Federico Fellini

Exhibition in tribute to Aldo Tassone (1938-2025), film critic, historian and university professor.

Fellini Foundation 25th anniversary program

Devil's House Cultural Space

February 27 to May 20, 2026

Tuesday to Saturday, 3pm to 7pm

Opening February 27, 2026 at 6pm

Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.