Dangerous Beauty

Released 1998
Stars Catherine McCormack, Rufus Sewell, Oliver Platt, Moira Kelly, Fred Ward, Jacqueline Bisset, Jeroen Krabbe, Joanna Cassidy
Directed by Marshall Herskovitz

Dangerous Beauty is a lavish historical melodrama that has enough suds, sex, and flashes of flesh to appeal to soap opera-lovers and enough substance to attract those of a more intellectual bent. However, while the movie does more than pay lip service to themes of female empowerment and religious intolerance, the main focus is the kind of hopeless, star-crossed romance that gave Wings of the Dove flight. How do two young lovers, separated on their social terrain by a gulf of wealth and power, reconcile the hot reality of their passion with the cold truth that they can never marry?

In 1583 Venice, women were regarded as little more than possessions. Education and willfulness were negative traits, reserved only for those who plied their bodies for money. Such are the circumstances of Veronica Franco (Catherine McCormack), who is desperately smitten with Marco Vernier (Rufus Sewell) -- and he with her. But the difference in their social position makes a legal relationship impossible. When Marco, not wanting to lead Veronica on, informs her of this harsh truth, she is devastated, and chooses to follow the advice of her mother (Jacqueline Bisset) and become a courtesan. Soon, with her rare mix of beauty, intelligence, and wit, she is the most prized prostitute in Venice, desired by everyone from the local bishop to the King of France. But, during the age of the Spanish Inquisition, power gained through "sinful" means can be a tenuous thing.

Summary by James Berardinelli

This is a gorgeous, sensuous film that's pretty entertaining, but it was a little too melodramatic for me. One of my biggest pet peeves is the big swell of music, and this movie has a lot of them. For example, take the ending courtroom scene with the grandstanding speech being given over the sappy strings. It just becomes silly. After all, what's being discussed here? They want to say women deserve rights as well as men, but they prove their point by saying it's better to be a prostitute than a housewife. This may have been based on Margaret Rosenthal's novel about her life, but I doubt that was her argument before the Spanish Inquisition. Still, there's stuff to admire. First, there's Catherine McCormack nude. That never hurts. Secondly, there's Jacqueline Bisset teaching her daughter to become a prostitute. It's an absurd situation, but we know it happened. That gives us a lot of insight into 16th century Venice, where station in life was everything. It was so important and took so long to achieve, you'd rather prostitute your daughter than allow her to marry into poverty. --Bill Alward, March 1, 2002