The Casanova: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"Gentlemen, I'm sure we can sort this out amicably. Look at it this way: if you could do what I could do, you'd do it too! But you can't. I can. And I have. And I'll do it again. So you should be happy for me, just a little tiny bit, don't you think?"''|'''Casanova''', ''[[Casanova (TV series)|Casanova]]''}}

 

 

Contrast with the unsuccessful [[Casanova Wannabe]]. Compare with the inexplicable [[Kavorka Man]]. A guy who gets the girls like a Casanova, but unintentionally, is a [[Chick Magnet]]. If kind-hearted, may overlap with [[Chivalrous Pervert]]. [[The Charmer]] is equally charming but less sex-obsessed. If they [[Really Gets Around|really get around]] but want to settle down it's [[Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places]]. A [[Handsome Lech]] has more negative connotations and a sparser scorecard than the Cassanova.

Many films, TV movies and TV mini-series are named for and based on that person. The best known are Fellini's 1976 film, [[Casanova (film)|the 2005 film]] starring [[Heath Ledger]], and [[Casanova (TV series)|the 2005 BBC drama mini-series]] starring [[David Tennant]]. The latter is considered one of the more faithful adaptations of Casanova's memoirs, while Fellini's... wasn't.

 

 

The comparatively [[Rare Female Example|rarer female version]] is traditionally called a [[Man Eater]].

** Willoughby of ''[[Sense and Sensibility (novel)|Sense and Sensibility]]'' (abandoned the last girl he slept with and dumps one of the heroines for someone richer)

** Wickham of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' (tried to seduce [[The Hero]]'s younger sister and succeeds in seducing the heroine's younger sister)

** Mr. Knightley fears Frank Churchill may be this in ''[[Emma]]'', given the mixed signals he keeps sending both to Emma and Jane Fairfax. It turns out {{spoiler|he's just an innocent if sometimes foolish [[Chick Magnet]] in a committed, [[Secret Relationship]] with Jane Fairfax}}.

* Spyros Stavaronas, the attractive young shrimp fisherman in ''[[Alexandra]]'' by Scott O'Dell. At first, he uses his charms to distract Alexandra so his henchmen can smuggle cocaine on her boat. When Alexandra finds out, he further tries to seduce her into keeping his secret and not turning them into the cops.

* Patrick of ''[[Coupling]]'' behaves like a cold hearted seducer, unable to see women as anything but potential conquests, dumping his girlfriends almost immediately, and compiling a vast collection of sex tapes of his conquests. Interestingly, he avoids being loathsome, as he's portrayed as stupid rather than deliberately malicious.

* Barney from ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]''. There's barely been an episode in the series where he hasn't hit on at least one woman, and uses a number of bizarre means to seduce them (which are surprisingly successful).

{{quote|'''Ted''': Does that ever work for you? (referring to one of Barney's numerous pick up lines and schemes)

'''Barney''': Ted, the question is do they ever ''not'' work for me? Either way the answer is about half the time. }}

* Samantha of ''[[Sex and the City]]'' arguably is more of a female version of this than [[The Vamp]] or [[Femme Fatale]], as her motivations are lust rather than being a "bad girl".

* Al Mundy of ''[[It Takes a Thief]]'' seems to pick up a new woman every episode, and even the ones who are initially frosty are charmed by him in the end. He doesn't seem to get much actual sex, though, because Noah always puts a stop to things just when the woman is softening up.

* Before Nathan of ''[[One Tree Hill]]'' fell in love with Haley, he was most definitely one of these, even if he was taken at the time. Haley is ''not'' happy when, in Season 4, after they are married and pregnant, she finds out that Nathan made a sex tape with their friend Brooke (though it was before he even knew her).

{{quote|'''Nathan:''' You want me to write a list of every single girl I've ever...

* [[Errol Flynn]]. He was such an accomplished and charming seducer that when he got into legal trouble in the early 1940's about having an affair with a teenager, he not only charmed the mostly-female jury into acquitting him, but ended up marrying the L.A. country sheriff's daughter, who was running a concession stand in the courthouse during the trial. The slang expression "in like Flynn" reportedly was coined as a result of that particular scandal. (This may also be an expression of [[Values Dissonance]], in that Flynn would probably have had his career wrecked today, charm or no charm.)

** David Niven, in one of his autobiographies, recounts a practical joke he and a couple of Flynn's other buddies once pulled. They hired a beautiful young prostitute to play the role of an innocent teenager. Just as Flynn was about to consummate his seduction of the girl, another sexy streetwalker, playing the girl's aunt, walked in. Much [[Hilarity Ensued]] as the other woman roundly scolded both Flynn and the girl and ordered her "niece" out of the room. When the girl had left, the older woman asked Flynn, "Do you know why I did that?" Errol said no, and the woman said, "Well, Mr. Flynn, it's because...''I wanted some of that myself!!''" and jumped him.

* Gene Simmons of [[Kiss]] fame, who has the pictures to prove it. Though his claims are still probably exaggerated. In fact, could be applied to many rock stars to some degree.

** One is well-advised to take some of his wilder claims with a grain of salt, since he's been "happily unmarried" to former ''Playboy'' playmate Shannon Tweed for over 2 decades and has had two children with her. Then again, his reputation certainly doesn't seem to bother her all that much...