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Flirting mask
In Russia, the costume melodrama "The Secret Love of Casanova" by Michel van Erp is being released. This is a fantasy created by Dutch filmmakers, inspired by episodes from the life of the legendary seducer. Yulia Shagelman noted that the scriptwriters wanted to make a film that would promote the idea of women's equality, but in the end they got a good ending - a story about love between rich families.
The events begin in Amsterdam in 1758. At that time (if we believe the creator of the film, of course), representatives of high society grew three-day beards, wore powdered wigs and frivolously shaved their heads from the forehead almost to the back of the head. We meet two such dandies at the opera (without whom we would find ourselves in the 18th century). Galatea (Dar Zuzovsky), a prostitute known throughout Amsterdam, arrives there in a mask and chador. One of the men was her old client, Mr. van der Kamp (Maarten Heymans), and the other was his friend from Paris, the Chevalier de Seingalt (Jona Hauer-King, who played the prince in last year's Disney remake). "The Little Mermaid"). He begins a colorful conversation with Galatea, and she suddenly plunges into memories.
The story takes place 16 years ago in an Italian village near Venice. Our heroine is not yet a courtesan or Galatea, but a simple girl named Lucia works as a servant in the count's estate. The owner (Simon Calder) treats her kindly and teaches her Latin, as well as reading and writing. Lucia walks barefoot, puts her feet in stockings on the table in the count's library and reads Voltaire. As usual, all this is supposed to show her freedom-loving and independent nature.
She and the young beauty attract one of the guests of the estate, the young Giacomo Casanova (of course, this is the same de Seingalt without a wig). "But I still look at the girls. Feelings flare up between him and Lucia, and the Voltarian maid even drags the future ladies' man into bed, but he shows unexpectedly conservative views, refuses sex and asks her to marry him. They plan a wedding in a few months, when Casanova returns from Venice. Unfortunately, in his absence, Lucia falls ill with smallpox, from which she survives, but remains damaged. Not daring to show herself to her lover, she tells him to tell her friend that she ran away with another man, and leaves for Bologna with a scar on her face.
There she begins attending the "gatherings of learned women" that she has heard about from the Count's guests. For these women, education consists largely of sitting in circles, engaging in vague philosophical conversations, and constantly complaining that society does not allow them to be themselves. One of them, Zelide (Ruth Bechard), sponsors Lucia, renames her Galatea, and makes her his secretary, assuring her that she can wear a mask everywhere in Venice, because of course it is carnival time. In this guise, Lucia shows up at a ball and discovers that her once-betrothed man now changes women like gloves, information confirmed by Casanova's younger brother, an artist (Josh Goulding).
This makes Lucia/Galatea extremely angry, but Zelide says that a woman's happiness should not depend on a man, and that it is possible to be independent and self-sufficient. In fact, for some reason, a woman can only find the freedom she seeks in a brothel, where a high-ranking mentor takes her on a trip. She is not particularly inspired, but together with a friend she moves to Amsterdam, where Zelide dies, and Galatea is left alone and without money... In short, all roads lead to sex work.
The two time layers of the film finally converge, and for some time Galatea and Casanova/Sengalt play out a courtly seduction ritual. This is probably supposed to be a reference to "Dangerous Liaisons", but it reminds me more of the film "Honest Whore" (1998), only in "Secret Love..." the interiors are poorer and the costumes are simpler. This time Casanova stubbornly does not recognize his former lover. But looking at his notes, it is not surprising that he has ceased to distinguish the face and other body parts.
The writers spend the film veering back and forth between a progressive “my body is my business” message and a very traditionalist idea that sexual promiscuity can be the result of deep psychological wounds. Ironically, capitalism wins the battle. Galatea abandons Casanova and the tender passions of Old World science and heads to America to continue her own exploits.