Sight and Sound, 04/01/2008, p.85, "Joseph Losey's Venice-shot, Palladio-inspired staging of Mozart's masterpiece is visually and musically ravishing..."
New York Times, 11/06/1979, p.C7, "...Superbly sung."
Shot in Color and Panavision.
Additional credits: Rolf Liebermann (cinematic conception); Frantz Salieri (adaptation); Michele Neny (sound); Marthe Mikon (costumes); and Janine Reiss (musical advisor and harpsichordist).
Additional performers: John Macurdy (The Commander); Edda Moser (Donna Anna); Kenneth Riegel (Don Ottavio); Malcolm King (Masetto); and Eric Adjani (Valet in Black).
Released theatrically in Paris September 1979.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Widescreen - 1.66
Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0 - Italian
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Mozart's celebrated opera is given lush cinematic treatment in this production by director Joseph Losey (THE SERVANT), with a score performed by the Paris Opera under the direction of Lorin Maazel. In 1600s Seville, Don Giovanni (Ruggero Raimondi, in a sinister performance) is the owner of a glass factory and a rampant womanizer who kills the father of Donna Anna (Edda Moser), an engaged woman whom he attempted to seduce. Anna and her fiance Ottavio vow revenge. The dead man's ghost later appears to Giovanni and offers the wealthy playboy the choice of changing his ways or facing the fires of Hell. Losey's film is regarded to be one of the finest opera films ever made.