Don Giovanni (1979 film)

Don Giovanni
Promotional poster
Directed by	Joseph Losey
Produced by	Robert Nador Michel Seydoux
Screenplay by	Rolf Liebermann Joseph Losey Patricia Losey Renzo Rossellini Frantz Salieri
Based on	Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte (libretto)
Starring	Ruggero Raimondi John Macurdy Edda Moser Kiri Te Kanawa Kenneth Riegel José van Dam Teresa Berganza Malcolm King Eric Adjani
Music by	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Cinematography	Angelo Filippini Gerry Fisher
Edited by	Reginald Beck Emma Menenti
Distributed by	Artificial Eye (United Kingdom) New Yorker Films (United States) Gaumont (France)
Release date	1979 (1979)
Running time	185 min. (France)
Country	France Italy United Kingdom Germany
Language	Italian
Budget	$7,000,000 US dollars (estimated)

Don Giovanni is a 1979 French-Italian film directed by Joseph Losey. It is an adaptation of Mozart's classic opera Don Giovanni, based on the Don Juan legend of a seducer, destroyed by his excesses. The film stars Ruggero Raimondi in the title role, and the conductor is Lorin Maazel. It was re-released on DVD in 2008.

After an unsuccessful attempt to seduce Donna Anna (soprano Edda Moser), Don Giovanni (baritone Ruggero Raimondi) 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 Teresa Berganza), 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 Kenneth Riegel). 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 José van Dam), 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.

In the opera, the action supposedly takes place in Spain, but Mozart's librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote in Italian, and this film uses locations in Venice and the Veneto. In particular, the film features buildings by Palladio in and around the city of Vicenza (Basilica Palladiana, Villa Rotonda and Teatro Olimpico).