Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence Infanzia, vocazione e prime esperienze di Giacomo Casanova, veneziano (literally "Childhood, Vocation, and First Experience of Giacomo Casanova, Venetian", internationally released as Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence and "Casanova: His Youthful Years") is a 1969 Italian comedy film directed by Luigi Comencini. It tells of the youth named Casanova, who, after an unhappy childhood and early ecclesiastical activity in Venice, became an abbot and abandoned his vocation for the love of a countess. Despite the plot, more than a portrait of Casanova, the film wants to be a vivid fresco of the Venetian society of
Giacomo Casanova could act violently, sometimes calling for a duel. Casanova admits that he was not disciplined enough to be a professional gambler: "I had neither prudence enough to leave off when fortune was adverse, nor sufficient control over myself when I had won." Nor did he like being considered as a professional gambler: "Nothing could ever be adduced by professional gamblers that I was of their infernal clique." Although Casanova at times used gambling tactically and shrewdly—for making quick money, for flirting, making connections, acting gallantly, or proving himself a gentleman among his social superiors—his practice also could be compulsive and