Taglines: A life without compromise.
Dangerous Beauty movie storyline. In 16th century Venice, courtesans enjoy unique privileges: dressed richly in red, they read, compose poetry and music, and discuss affairs of state with the men who govern the Republic. When Veronica Franco comes of age, she cannot marry Marco Venier, whom she loves, because she is well born but penniless. Her choice: cloister or courtesan.
She steels her heart, and with beauty and intelligence becomes the best. She’s a heroine when she helps convince France to aid Venice in war with Turks, but when plague descends, the Church charges her with witchcraft. At her inquisition, she must match wits with an old rival, speak for all women, and call courage from Venier.
Dangerous Beauty is a 1998 American biographical drama film directed by Marshall Herskovitz and starring Catherine McCormack, Rufus Sewell, and Oliver Platt. Based on the non-fiction book The Honest Courtesan by Margaret Rosenthal, the film is about Veronica Franco, a courtesan in sixteenth-century Venice who becomes a hero to her city, but later becomes the target of an inquisition by the Church for witchcraft. The film features a supporting cast that includes Fred Ward, Naomi Watts, Moira Kelly and Jacqueline Bisset.
About the Story
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 film opened in limited release on 20 February 1998 to mixed but mostly positive reviews, receiving a 69 percent freshness rating on the movie critics website Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gives it 3 1/2 stars and lauds the writers, noting that “few movies have been so deliberately told from a woman’s point of view…. Most movies are made by males and show women enthralled by men. This movie knows better.”
Jack Mathews of the Los Angeles Times described it as “both blessed and cursed with inspiration.” In its initial release, Dangerous Beauty played in only 10 theatres, although it did well, earning $105,989 (a per theater average of $10,599 across ten theaters). Dangerous Beauty eventually opened across 313 theaters, but earned only $4.5 million in the United States.
A stage musical version of the film premiered on July 25, 2008 at Northwestern University’s Ethel M. Barber Theatre. The musical features book and verse by Jeannine Dominy (the screenwriter of the film), lyrics by Amanda McBroom, and music by Michele Brourman under the direction of Sheryl Kaller. Another musical version of Dangerous Beauty premiered at the Pasadena Playhouse in February 2011, starring Jenny Powers as Veronica Franco and James Snyder as Marco Venier.
Dangerous Beauty (1998)
Directed by: Marshall Herskovitz
Starring: Catherine McCormack, Rufus Sewell, Naomi Watts, Oliver Platt, Moira Kelly, Fred Ward, Jacqueline Bisset, Joanna Cassidy, Melina Kanakaredes, Justine Miceli
Screenplay by: Jeannine Dominy
Production Design by: Norman Garwood
Cinematography by: Bojan Bazelli
Film Editing by: Steven Rosenblum
Costume Design by: Gabriella Pescucci
Set Decoration by: Ian Whittaker
Art Direction by: Stefania Cella, Gianni Giovagnoni
Music by: George Fenton
MPAA Rating: R for some scenes of strong sexuality, and for nudity and language.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures (North America), 20th Century Fox (International)
Release Date: February 20, 1998
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