The Honest Courtesan
USA 1997
Reviewed by Nina Caplan
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Venice, the sixteenth century. Veronica Franco falls in love with Marco Venier, the brother of her childhood friend. Her feelings are returned, but he marries for money under family pressure. Veronica's mother tells her she can rescue her own impoverished family and revenge herself on her lover by becoming a courtesan. Veronica is resistant initially, but is persuaded by the artistic advantages - life as a courtesan offers literary pleasures forbidden to respectable women. She becomes the most beautiful and celebrated courtesan at the Doge's court, to the anguish of Marco and the frustration of his cousin Maffio, a poet who also lusts after her but cannot afford her fees. Maffio's professional jealousy leads to a poetry contest. Veronica wins and takes Marco as her lover.
Maffio gives up on all pleasures of the flesh and becomes a zealot. Veronica gives up her career as a courtesan. Venice goes to war with the Turks. Desperate for ships, Venice fêtes Henry of France, who desires Veronica. Venice gets her ships, after Veronica sleeps with Henry. But Marco is furious, rejects her and goes off to war. The warriors return to find Venice plague-ridden; the courtesans are blamed for the city's misery. Veronica's mother dies of plague. The lovers are reunited only for Veronica to be hauled before the Inquisition for witchcraft. She refuses to save herself by confession, but Marco's impassioned pleas are eventually backed by her other gentlemen-lovers and Marco's sister. Veronica's life is saved.
Review
The Honest Courtesan is based on a true story, but its historical foundations are as shaky as Venice's own. The film is forever on the point of sinking under a deluge of clichés. Historical romances are not known for their accuracy, but this one keeps on its rose-tinted lenses. This banality leads to some unlikely characterisation. It seems extraordinary that the young aspiring poetess Veronica, who has grown up in a bawdy, pleasure-seeking but carefully structured society, should expect the son of a powerful house to marry for love rather than money. Her disappointment with what is, after all, Marco's honesty is the basis for everything that follows. He tells her that they cannot marry, so she flounces off and becomes a courtesan.
Her celebrated career and the panoramic shots of golden Venice at twilight soon unfold according to our expectations. Veronica's status as a great poet and intellectual is difficult to establish, but her relationship with Marco is so patently the focus of the film this is easily glossed over. It's a pity the film is so focused on romance that the most interesting parts of the story are peeked at only occasionally. There are extraordinary contrasts here - between noblemen and zealots, courtesans and wives. The opposition between desire and renunciation - embodied in the hedonistic, talented but covetous poet Maffio who becomes a zealot - is trivialised. (And Oliver Platt must be one of the least sinister Spanish Inquisitors ever portrayed.)
The position of women at the time is looked at in scant detail. Courtesans have access to knowledge of all kinds - social, sexual, political and cultural - while 'respectable' women are told from childhood that promiscuity of the mind leads to promiscuity of the body. In a superb scene which hints at what might have been, the wives send for the better-informed Veronica to ask about their husbands, who are away fighting the Turks. As she struts around them, reassuring them and explaining their husbands' absence, the women stand in a little semi-circle, circumscribed and immobilised by their ignorance. In sharp contrast with Veronica's poetic wit, these women can insult only by implying she lacks fertility. Marco is a twentieth-century man at sea in sixteenth-century Venice. His speech may be old-fashioned, but his gestures and expressions are entirely modern. "Perhaps I just can't deal with it," he says when Veronica sleeps with Henry King of France for gain. Clearly he's having trouble coping with his lover having a higher-profile job than his. What is most entertaining is the film's utter conviction. It is as if the film-makers thought coloured gels and violins had never been used to sweeten sugary romances before. Catherine McCormack's roseate beauty and Rufus Sewell's brooding looks are comfortingly in type and the swashbuckling style suits what is in effect a boy's own adventure story with a heroine who fights, speechifies for truth and saves her country.
Credits
- Producers
- Marshall Herskovitz
- Edward Zwick
- Arnon Milchan
- Sarah Caplan
- Screenplay
- Jeannine Dominy
- Based on the biography by The Honest Courtesan by Margaret Rosenthal
- Director of Photography
- Bojan Bazelli
- Editors
- Steven Rosenblum
- Arthur Coburn
- Production Designer
- Norman Garwood
- Music
- George Fenton
- ©Monarchy Enterprises B.V. and Regency Entertainment (USA) Inc
- Production Companies
- Regency Enterprises presents an Arnon Milchan/Bedford Falls production
- Executive Producers
- Michael Nathanson
- Stephen Randall
- Co-producer
- Paolo Lucidi
- Associate Producer
- Debra Michael Petro
- Production Controller
- Bonnie Daniels
- Production Co-ordinators
- Italy:
- Catherine Smith
- US:
- Jennifer Johnson
- Unit Production Managers
- Giovanni Lovatelli
- 2nd Unit:
- Inigo Lezzi
- Unit Manager
- Vincenzo Testa
- Location Managers
- Michele Greco
- Frederico Foti
- 2nd Unit Director
- Bryan Loftus
- Assistant Directors
- Kuki Lopez Rodero
- Alberto Mangiante
- Barbara Pastrovich
- Livia Tovoli
- 2nd Unit:
- Inigo Lezzi
- Script Co-ordinator
- Giorgia Onofri
- Casting
- Mindy Marin
- Wendy Kurtzman
- UK:
- Mary Selway
- Italy:
- Gaia Forrini
- Voice:
- L.A. MadDogs
- Special Visual Effects
- Illusion Arts, Inc
- Visual Effects Supervisor:
- Robert Stromberg
- Matte Artists:
- Mike Wassel
- Kelvin McIlwain
- Staff Producer:
- Catherine Sudolcan
- Digital Supervisor:
- Richard Patterson
- Digital Compositing:
- David S. Williams Jr
- Kenneth Nakada
- Matte Photography:
- Adam Kowalski
- Digital Animation:
- Fumi Mashimo
- Optical Compositing:
- Mark Sawicki
- Matte Effects:
- Lynn Ledgerwood
- Visual Effects Consultant:
- Alan Munro
- Special Effects Co-ordinator
- Massimo Nespoli
- Supervising Art Director
- Keith Pain
- Art Directors
- Gianni Giovagnoni
- Stefania Cella
- Set Decorator
- Ian Whittaker
- UK Draughtsmen
- Steve Lawrence
- Peter Dorme
- Scenic Artist
- James Gemmill
- Storyboard Artist
- Andrea Dietrich
- Sculptor
- Paolo Del Grande
- Costume Designer
- Gabriella Pescucci
- Make-up
- Key Artist:
- Fabrizio Sforza
- Artists:
- Alessandra Sampaolo
- Enrico Iacoponi
- Key Hairstylist
- Mirella Ginnoto
- Hairstylists
- Elisabetta De Leonardis
- Claudia Bianchi
- Hair/Make-up Stylist
- Edward Ternes
- Main Titles
- Frederick Toye
- Open Films
- Title Graphics
- Kathie Broyles
- Titles
- Pacific Title
- Additional Music
- Rachel Portman
- Orchestral Leader
- Ken Stillito
- Additional Music Recordist
- Philip Pickett
- New London Consort
- Orchestrations
- Geoffrey Alexander
- Music Co-ordinator
- Eliza Thompson
- Music Editors
- Stuart Goetz
- Tommy Lockett
- Music Recordist/Mixer
- John Richards
- Soundtrack
- "Ungaresca e. saltarello" by Giorgio Mainero; "Libro quarto d'intavolotura di Chitatone" by Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger; "Scopri o lingua" by Barolomeo Tromboncino; "Miserere miseris", "Zorzi" (anon); "La Morisque" by Tielman Susato; "Song" by John Donne
- Choreography
- Flavia Sparapani
- Production Sound Mixer
- David Stephenson
- Re-recording Mixers
- Andy Nelson
- Anna Behlmer
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Per Hallberg
- Co-supervising Sound Editor
- Lon E. Bender
- Dialogue Editors
- Lauren Stephens
- Ann Szakmeister
- Dan Rich
- Effects Editors
- Chris Assells
- Peter Michael Sullivan
- ADR
- Supervising Editor:
- Mary Andrews
- Editor:
- Laura Graham
- Foley
- Artists:
- Ellen Heuer
- James Moriana
- Recordist:
- Don Givens
- Mixer:
- David W. Alstadter
- Editors:
- Craig Jaeger
- Dino DiMuro
- Bryan Bowen
- Fight Choreographer
- William Hobbs
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Neno Zamperla
- Weapons Man
- Gianni Fiumi
- Cast
- Catherine McCormack
- Veronica Franco
- Rufus Sewell
- Marco Venier
- Oliver Platt
- Maffio Venier
- Moira Kelly
- Beatrice Venier
- Fred Ward
- Domenico Venier
- Jacqueline Bisset
- Paola Franco
- Peter Eyre
- The Doge
- Naomi Watts
- Giulia De Lezze
- Jeroen Krabbé
- Pietro Venier
- Joanna Cassidy
- Laura Venier
- Melina Kanakaredes
- Livia
- Daniel Lapaine
- Serafino Franco
- Justine Miceli
- Elena Franco
- Jake Weber
- King Henry
- Simon Dutton
- Minister Ramberti
- Grant Russell
- Francesco Martenengo
- Carla Cassola
- Caterina
- Gianny Musy
- Joseph
- Michael Culkin
- Bishop De La Torre
- Ralph Riach
- Lorenzo Grilli
- Charlotte Randle
- Francesca
- Alberto Rossatti
- Andrea Tron
- Anna Sozzani
- Marina
- Luis Molteni
- Giacomo Baballi
- Tim McMullan
- Richard O'Callaghan
- zealots
- Lenore Lohman
- Maud Bonanni
- Gaia Zoppi
- Venetian wives
- Roberto Corbiletto
- tailor
- Annelie Harryson
- fanatic woman
- David Gant
- Bolognetti
- Daniele Ciampi
- naked workman
- Elena Mita
- Frederico Mita
- Elena's children
- Francesca Lucidi
- Simona Nobili
- Lena Guthorsen
- Valentina Ardeatini
- Tiziana Della Spina
- Anna Maria Minati
- Ilaria De Vincenzis
- Cristina Rinaldi
- Garmy Sall
- Anna Maria Malipiero
- Flaminia Fegarotti
- Federica Federici
- Angela Camuso
- Patrizia Leonet
- Elide Marigliani
- Natascia Pastorello
- Barbara Di Dio
- Fulvia Lorenzetti
- Olfa Ben Ramdane
- Laura Tedesco
- Emy Kay
- courtesans
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- 20th Century Fox (UK)
- 10,063 feet
- 111 minutes 49 seconds
- Dolby digital
- In Colour
- Prints by
- Technicolor
- Super 35 [1:2.35]
- US release title
- Dangerous Beauty