Dangerous Beauty: Movie Review

In Dangerous Beauty, (1988) Catherine McCormick stars as Veronica Franco, an idealistic young woman, who falls in love with the brother of her childhood friend who just happens to be a Venetian Senator and well above her station. The brother, Marco Venier, (Rufus Sewell) finds himself in love with her as well but is helpless to do anything about it because family pressure and duty dictate that he must marry a woman of means who can provide a suitable political union, and of course, heirs.

Veronica's Mother, portrayed by Jaqueline Bisset, decides that since her drunkard husband has died and left the family penniless and she can not "purchase" a marriage to secure Veronica's future she will train her lovely daughter to become a courtesan and sets about to training her in the ways and delights of pleasure.

Veronica makes her debut, reluctantly at first, and quickly rises to the height of popularity and acclaim, something Marco is not at all happy about but powerless to stop. The resulting situation lends itself to a series of events where each character is faced with the consequences of the choices available to them according to their station. Veronica is even called upon to entice aid from a French Monarch.

Along the way Marco's cousin repents his hedonistic ways and joins the church which allows him the opportunity to use the inquisition to exact revenge on Veronica for rejecting him at the height of her popularity and have her tried as a witch.

Dangerous Beauty is a story of passion and politics and the film paints an extremely romantic picture of the freedoms and privileges enjoyed by intellectual courtesans of the day who were of a "higher class" than that of the everyday prostitute though they enjoyed none of the protection afforded to "respectable" ladies. At the same time it presents a very real conundrum faced by women of little or no means throughout history and shows how becoming a courtesan could have actually been an appealing choice for someone with little other options.

The real Veronica Franco lived in Venice in the sixteenth century and like her on screen counterpart was a published poet. The character of Veronica in the film is loosely based on Margaet F.Rosenthal's book, "The Honest Courtesan." The film was directed by Marshall Herskovitz; Melina Kanakaredes and Oliver Platt also appear.