Dangerous Beauty

Plot synopsis:
Veronica Franco (Catherine McCormack) is an adventurous, curious, slightly tomboyish young woman in Venice. Her lover Marco (Rufus Sewell) cannot marry her because her family is of too low standing to be considered an appropriate match for a senator's son, and not wealthy enough to provide a good dowry. Marco, a future Senator, marries a foreign noblewoman instead. Veronica's mother (Jacqueline Bisset) must think of the future and her family's financial security, as she still requires dowries for her younger daughters and money for her son's commission. Rather than go to a convent, Veronica's mother suggests she become a courtesan, a highly paid, cultured prostitute like her mother and grandmother before her. At first Veronica is repelled by the idea, but once she discovers that courtesans are allowed access to libraries and education, she tentatively embraces the idea.
Veronica quickly gains a reputation as a top courtesan, impressing the powerful men of Venice with her beauty, wit, and compassion. Marco finds it difficult to adjust to his new wife, who is nothing like Veronica, and becomes jealous as she takes his friends and relatives as lovers. After Marco's cousin Maffio, a poor bard who was once publicly upstaged by Veronica, attacks her, Marco rushes to her aid. They rekindle their romance. Marco wishes her to stop seeing clients and accept his support instead; she rejects the idea, unwilling to sacrifice her financial independence or accept a faux-wife status. Nevertheless, she spends a great deal of time with Marco in the country, neglecting her business, and ignoring her mother's warnings that such a relationship is dangerous for her.
The Fourth Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–73) breaks out, and the city appeals to France for aid. Veronica is encouraged to seduce the King of France and secures a military alliance. Marco accuses her of enjoying being a courtesan, seeming to think she ought to have rejected the King despite the risk to Venice's military and political alliances. Veronica points out that she sacrificed their love for the good of the city, while he only did it to protect his family's political standing, and Marco leaves for war angry. While the Venetians are fighting at sea, a plague hits the city. Religious zealots take the war and plague as punishment for the city's moral degradation, and Veronica's home is quarantined and almost ransacked by a mob.
Veronica is summoned to appear before the Inquisition on charges of witchcraft and refuses to name her clients. When it appears that she will be executed, Marco publicly shames the Venetian ministers and senators into admitting their own adulteries and sins by standing up in the assembly. Bewildered by the extent of sin in the city, the Inquisitor drops the charges of witchcraft, and Marco and Veronica reconcile.

Tags: historical, cruelty, sadist, melodrama

Review:
For me the power of this movie rests in its faithfulness to Margaret Rosenthal's book the Honest Courtesan; which is a well-researched look at Veronica Franco's life and the plight of Venetian women in the 16th century.
While the details are unknown and the movie is certainly more romatically dramatic than I would imagine the actual historical event, it was very true to the spirit and feel supported by the evidence we have.Venetian women, and indeed most medieval women, were in an unenviable position as second class citizens.
Veronica Franco's struggle to find an acceptable position in society as a woman of good family but poor, is representative of the moral and societal conflicts of her time.
Veronica Franco was a real person, and Catherine McCormack does her justice.The movie is not the speediest, but the learning process, and the development of the situation is excellent.
The youth and witty Veronica Franco (Catherine McCormack) and the wealthy Marco Venier (Rufus Sewell), who is the brother of her best friend Beatrice (Moira Kelly), are in love for each other, but her mother can not afford the dowry for their marriage.
This movie is quite perfect, with a wonderful story, excellent screenplay, magnificent direction, witty dialogs, a fantastic cast and awesome cinematography, set decoration and costumes in the environment of Venice in the Sixteenth Century.
(Just don't expect Blanchette and Joseph Fienes.) If you like historical dramas with romance, intrigue and lovely scenery then I strongly recommend Dangerous Beauty..
"Dangerous Beauty" brought me back to Life!It inspired me emotionally and physically.(I lost over 30lbs.walking/listening to the film's score everyday.)The film has excellent production values: wonderful sets & exquisite costumes; fabulous golden Rembrandt lighting; dreamy soft focus cinematography; gorgeous actors,(Rufus Sewell, with a voice that makes you melt & eyes that speak volumes even when he is silent,in the role of Marco, shows great acting range,from carefree playboy to mature man in love.Catherine McCormick portrays Veronica as a jilted lover who becomes an assertive courtesan, yet never loses her soft side.She has the face of supermodel Paulina Herzigova/Audrey Hepburn.)These actors share the most convincing chemistry as lovers that I've seen in years.
And the piece de resistance of Dangerous Beauty is the most passionate music in the world by George Fenton(this should win him his long-awaited Oscar.)The movie blends comedy, romance, swordfights, poetry, sex, the plague/Inquisition, and self-sacrifice.It makes you long for such "a soulmate love" as this.
It was MY "Titanic / Gone with the Wind / Casablanca".) The director, Marshall Herskovitz,(of Legends Of the Fall) created a world that I loved to visit.The movie reminded me that I was still a "Dangerous Beauty" myself.
Her mother shows her another way to be with Rufus, by becoming a courtesan...Soon Veronica becomes the best and all the men who are with her love her on some level, for her satire, quick wit, etc...This leads her to becoming one of the most important assets's to Venice in more ways than one...
Catherine McCormack shows us through the life of Veronica Franco that this movie is NOT a 'soft porn' but the reality of women during the 16th Century!
Good story, if not strong, wonderful scenery and costumes, good acting, lots of sensuality and some humor.The Inquisition scenes will make any history buff roll their eyes so remember to just suspend disbelief and enjoy.It's a fairly honest look at women in the 16th century, if viewed through feminist eyes.
Some surprising actors turn out beautifully.Only bad thing is, I hate this about movies and books; doesn't it get a little old when the lead female makes EVERY man fall in love or lust with her?
Dangerous Beauty pretends to be the story of real-life 16th-century Venetian courtesan Veronica Franco.
Still, if Dangerous Beauty had done no worse than this, it could still have been enjoyable, if silly, for these historical absurdities do not amount to gratuitous slanders against Veronica's non-courtesan contemporaries.Much worse is the pretense that prostitution was women's only path to education and influence in Renaissance Italy.
The movie further kicks marriage in the teeth; a married woman expresses envy for Veronica's position and bemoans that being a wife is a `state of perpetual inconsequence.'  Merely because women (not just wives) were unconscionably mistreated in that age, we are expected to swallow the idea that the woman who ran the household and raised, moulded and educated the children, and who could not be divorced without an expensive and hard-to-get dispensation from the Pope, was less `consequential' than a prostitute men used and forgot the next week.Still more disgusting is the movie's attempt to disparage love itself.
The medieaval Italians spent their time wheeling and dealing in a way that would put a Hollywood mogul to shame, and arranging marriages was part of the dealing.Catherine McCormick does a wonderful job as Veronica and the film is helped by wonderful supporting players.
I'm not totally against films being unreal, or fantastical; But to me it just doesn't work well when you claim that you are telling a true story, but then most of the film is filled with scenes that don't really feel like they are portraying real characters and situations.
If you don't think, you'll see a story of an independent woman and of how Love Conquers All.But if you try to think about what is going on and if you try to consider what the characters are saying and doing, all you'll be able to do is tilt your head, squint, and ask yourself, "Huh?"  It's not that the movie is confusing; there has to be at least an attempt at complexity for that.
It's that the characters act in such a senseless way that there's no way to imagine any real person doing what they do (in spite of the scene-setting opening paragraph that tells us that this REALLY DID HAPPEN).The baseline is that Dangerous Beauty tries really hard to be a good drama about defying society, convention, and women's gender roles.
In 16th century Venice, a beautiful woman who cannot marry the man she loves for want of station or dowry becomes a successful  courtesan and wields her power in favor of goodness against war, plague, and those always pesky inquisitors.
A light comedy-drama to be adored by dreamers and condemned by realists, "Dangerous Beauty" is a wholly enjoyable little tale of the downtrodden surmounting the powerful,  love conquering all, goodness winning over righteousness, and all those other things people go to movies to enjoy.
And there is somewhere a woman true and fair.Veronica Franco (Catherine McCormack), a woman with a venerable family name but no cash, learns the oldest profession from her mother after experiencing the considerable shock of seeing a young woman in the nunnery (her first choice since she can't marry the man she loves) getting her golden locks shorn.
No danger of that for Veronica, whose mane flows free even when she might dress down a little to hide from the hoi polloi, who are blaming her sinful ways for the plague that visits 16th Century Venice.Rufus Sewell plays nobleman Marco Venier who loves her but must marry someone else for the good of the family fortune.
Dangerous Beauty is supposed to be a view into the life of a real social heroine Veronica Franco, a "strong minded female courtesan."  However, after viewing the film I felt I had just experienced a Harlequin Romance novel.
The movie was a masked version of Cinderella; sure there were some scenes where the character used her wit but underneath it all the same sappy, romance cliches were used, at some point making me writhe with embarrassment and wondering if a saxophone solo should be placed as background music during the "I LOVE YOU" interactions!
Sumptious photography, cracking story, beautiful lead actress and a superb courtroom denouement still can't shake the feeling that this is as fake as a plastic Christmas tree.It was very enjoyable if viewed as fluff, 16th century "Dynasty" occured to me at several points, but the most amazing thing about this story is that most of the key events actually happened.Everyone speaking in English accents and high-school poetry portrayed as great wit and art killed the credibility.
Beautifully produced with amazing scenes of old Venice, an orchestral score, nice costumes, and attractive actors, this film is certainly worth watching.
Catherine McCormack plays real life woman Veronica Franco, who out of necessity becomes a courtesan to the rich and powerful men of the royal court after being properly tutored by her experienced mother(played by Jacqueline Bisset) though really loves a nobleman(played by Rufus Sewall) whom she is unable to marry, though when the worsening plague strikes the city, women like her are put on trial by the inquisition, prompting him to come to her public defense.
That is, until your looks faded...This had me involved from the start, helped no doubt by the gorgeous heroine but also by the host of other delightful characters, including Rufus Sewell as her unattainable true love from a higher station, and Oliver Platt as his cousin, who moves to the God Squad after a bit of brainwashing.
First it should be noted that the film Dangerous Beauty is based on true events and the life of a real person.
Certainly liberties have been taken, but it is a rich and romantic tale of deeply loyal love.This is a beautiful period piece set in Venice 1600s, which was Republic on its own, not a part of Italy.
As fabulous as the costumes are and as exciting most of the actors, it has to be conceded that there is a tone of "girl teen empowerment movie" in more than one scene.The times dictated that women had to be worth something -to hold a dowry - in order to be married to a man of status or means.
Her on-screen chemistry with Rufus Sewell is staggering, and the two play wonderful counterpoint throughout the movie, learning to overcome the limitations imposed by society and live out their love for one another..
For one thing, the character of Veronica Franco does not appear to have many qualms about her choice to become a courtesan throughout the course of the film, where one would expect that in that era, it would be a very difficult and humiliating choice for a woman to make.
This end showed me the real nature of the film, for it was so irritatingly a banal unrealistic "American" happy-ending.British Catherine McCormack sure is beautiful and talented, and British Rufus Sewell is no worse then her, but this is a movie I will give them bad credit for doing.
It's a fun romantic romp, not very deep, despite the veneer of feminism, sort of a serious "Gigi" without the music, originally titled "Courtesan" but TPTB were afraid no one would know what that was.It's a costume drama with (female) nudity and four letter words, gee just like they must have spoken if they spoke English in Venice.The sets were obviously mattes, but quite pretty.I've liked Rufus Sewall since "Middlemarch" on "Masterpiece Theatre."Jaqueline Bisset makes a grande older dame, and her comments about her conquests when young have a nice resonance with real life.Some actors who don't usually get to don corset and hose get to dress up, like Fred Ward, Justine Miceli, and Moira Kelley, and are surprisingly good at it.
The film is not a documentary but is based on real facts, and portrays with some accuracy the social limbo where these women were: they were generally accepted by society but never came to be part of it, they were usually the most educated women but they weren't taken seriously by men.The script is good, the story is good and the actors do a great job as well.
Catherine McCormack played the courtesan Veronica and got, with this film, her most significant work, reaching the top of her career.
Venice is famous for its unique beauty and, in this film, we only see the channels and bridges.Apart from some flaws and some edges that could have been honed, the movie is good and worth watching it..
Film is great,but the most brilliant because of Catherine McCormack.Beautiful woman in here.If you want to see the portrait of what woman must be-you can see it in this film.Despite all the troubles and many forced lovers - she remains been in love with one man truly.Amazing dialogues all through the movie.I don't understand why this film so underrated,it's the most passionate film in this genre.And very truthful:for example,a moment when Maffio suggest's to Veronica spend night with him and she says - "No"...because the most wonderful women spend time with powerful men(laws of real life).Funny thing in the film- connection with "BraveHeart", noticed in inquisition line: the role of magistrate acted by one actor in both films.Great film,great times.
Oliver Platt, Jacqueline Bisset, and Fred Ward shine in their supportive roles and give credence to a lovely, romantic story.The only drawback that I can see has nothing to do with the movie, and everything to do with historic fact.
After watching the movie I found myself curious about the life of Veronica Franco, because she is portrayed so strongly by Catherine McCormack.
After watching the movie a second time, I feel that even with the strong performance this movie might not have done justice to such an amazing woman like Veronica Franco.Even so, I rate it very highly and would encourage any adult to watch it.
This is truly Catherine McCormack (Veronica Franco) of Braveheart and Rufus Sewell (Marco Venier) of A Knight's Tale movie.
This is truly Catherine McCormack (Veronica Franco) of Braveheart and Rufus Sewell (Marco Venier) of A Knight's Tale movie.
Filmed entirely on location in Italy, you truly are wrapped up in the 16th century Venice.An strong supporting cast that includes Jacqueline Bisset (Paola Franco) in an role that captivities and blows you away.
It wasn't that she had a "whore's freedom" that made her life better, but that she was free from "being a slave to her husband." The overall feeling of the movie didn't make me want to go work the corner, but to go be with the man I love, because I can.
While other women can compete with her beauty or her prowess, none can compete with her mind.The movie takes a turn as the plague comes to Venice, and the high class call girl is reduced to a common whore, and charged with witchcraft, casting her spell on all the men of the town.
I certainly encourage all those who enjoy a romantic story, to watch this lovely movie, that touches the heart and soul to great dimensions..
But this true sleeper of 1998 has recently made it onto my list of Favorites.Dangerous Beauty tells the story of the love affair (emphasis on "love") between Veronica Franco (Catherine McCormack, Mel Gibson's wife in Braveheart), a courtesan in 16th century Venice, and Marco Venier (Rufus Sewell), a married senator.Dangerous Beauty has everything a true romantic desires:  true love, destiny, a trial, an explanation, and a realization that two people can sacrifice everything for one another and still have given up nothing in comparison to their love..
Wonderful period film about Veronica Franco one of Rome's most captivating Courtesans.
Catherine McCormick plays Veronica, the movie starts with her just being another young lady in love with young Marco Venier.
Great movie, a must see if you enjoy historical films..
Catherine McCormack portrays the courtesan/poetess Veronica Franco sincerely and beautifully, and Rufus Sewell is, well, extremely handsome (check him out in "Cold Comfort Farm" too!).
Well many years have passed since I saw such a wonderful historical movie.I think that the story is fantastic but also that the acting is very good.It is very realistic showing things as they were at that time.Also it gives a very good picture of Venice then and now as it hasn't changed a lot.
Also it should make us think what women had to do at that time in order to have liberty and to obtain some education.I strongly recommend this movie to all the friends of historical movies and also supporters of romantic films..
Re-watching had me re-appraising this film.McCormack's Veronica Franco,a 16th Century learned Courtesan is a vision as a transformation from shy,lovestruck Venetian local to bright,gifted and dutiful servicer to men's desires.
Like the Garry Marshall film, Dangerous Beauty is the story of a woman who is instructed by her mother how to learn the social skills necessary to improve her stage in life.
But on the other hand, an otherwise good looking movie is spoilt by a number of obviously fake panoramas which are meant to be old time Venice.The whore Katherine is played with some verve by Catherine McCormack; Braveheart's wife in Mel Gibson's film.
In this case the story does reflect the complex morals and social situation of the historical time and place.I think it is a great movie to show in a History of the Renaissance class.
It manages to get us back into the time period better than any other movie I have ever seen.The acting, sets, lighting, make-up and costumes are superb and the story enchanting.
The costumes are great And the last 15 minutes are amazing!It's one of my favorite movies...I think one of the aspects of this movie is still relevant today: Women who are beautiful, intelligent and comfortable with their sexuality are a threat to society.I looked up the poet Veronica Franco to find out more information about her, and her life was very close to what the movie portrayed..
And I guess that McCormack and Sewell liked it too, they both look as though they enjoyed making the film as much as I enjoyed watching..
But it does give the viewer what life was like for a 17th century Venetian courtesan, especially Veronica Franco.