The movie adaptation of the book “The Honest Courtesan” by Margaret Rosenthal.
“Marco Venier: Do you not like my kiss?
Veronica Franco: I wish it were not a sin to have liked it so.
Marco Venier: God made sin, though we might know his mercy.”
This movie is NO ordinary love story, It’s more than just that. It regales of one woman’s fight for her life, her identity and her freedom in a world where beauty is skin-deep and meant nothing more than a dime.
The movie’s story spine would look like this:
Once upon a time, there was this beautiful woman living a commoner’s life.
Every day, she would read a poem or finish a book and goes on to see the world in different perspectives.
But one day, she fell in love with a man, named Marco, who cannot marry her and must marry someone else for duty’s sake.
Because of that, her longing for her lover’s touch made her to step into a life of a courtesan – A life that gave her access to education and opportunity to be with her lover.
Because of her wittiness and boldness to speak, she has become the most coveted courtesan during her time, a published poet that even the King of France succumbed to her beauty and brain, and promised aid to Venice in fourth Ottoman-Venetian war.
Because of the outbreak of a plague, all courtesans became the target of the Inquisition, and she was summoned for heresy and witchcraft.
Until finally, the inquisitor, perplexed by the city’s notoriety in adulterous acts, dropped all the charges against her.
And ever since then, she opened her doors to all the courtesans who were summoned and punished whilst she and Marco remained in love.
My personal take on the movie – since it was based on a non-fiction book, it was more intriguing, but more so because it’s a real – life story of a coveted courtesan and a published poet rolled into one. It also depicted Venice centuries ago. The way Venetian women were viewed and treated in the society. Showed us that political alliance through marriage is a common scene from then and reflects even till now. The way the story transitioned from one scene to another was spot on. The director surely knew exactly how to balance each scene that makes viewers want more. He doesn’t clutter each scene with unnecessary characters. He made sure that viewers will have someone to root for. The characters were given their voice.
The main characters – Veronica and Marco played their parts very well, to the point where I could imagine and actually feel the roller coaster of emotions throughout the film. From serene and blissful innocent love to unfathomable sadness and unquenchable longing. I can feel the disgusted look thrown at Veronica by the women whose husbands found refuge in her bosom, as If I was her.
I was angry at the inquisitor when in their pursuit of holiness, they forgot that Venice left Veronica no option to survive. I was stoked when all the men who broke their marital vows stood up for Veronica and fought for her acquittal, more so because they stood up at the expense of everything, everything they hold dear. I said finally – they became men!
Because it’s an old movie (shown in 1998) that featured Venice in 1583, the movie was created in those days where the technological advancements in the movie industry is far from what it is now. Nonetheless, this story stripped of all modern time movie effects is still a movie that is worth every second of my time.
This movie was engaging, intriguing, and resonates to women in any part of the world, that women were created far more than just for man’s pleasure. That no matter how hard-pressed we are – we have a story to tell and our story can also alter man’s history!
The part that I love the most was towards the end of the film, during the inquisition of Veronica and she said these words:
“I will confess, Your Grace. I confess that as a young girl, I loved a man who would not marry me for want of a dowery. I confess I had a mother who taught me a different way of life, one I resisted at first, but learned to embrace. I confess I became a courtesan. Traded yearning for power, welcomed many rather than be owned by one. I confess I embraced a whore’s freedom over a wife’s obedience… Your Grace, what am I to do? I need to confess my evil as the church instructs, these are my sins… I confess I find more ecstasy in passion than in prayer. Such passion IS prayer. I confess… I confess I pray still to feel the touch of my lover’s lips, his hands upon me, his arms enfolding me. Such surrender has been mine. I confess I hunger still to be filled and enflamed, to melt into the dream of us, beyond this troubled place, to where we are not even ourselves, to know that always, always this is mine. If this had not been mine, if I had lived another way, a child to a husband’s whim, my soul hardened from lack of touch and lack of love, I confess such endless days and nights would be punishment far greater than any you could meter out. You, all of you, you who hunger so for what I give, but cannot bear to see such power in a woman. You call God’s greatest gift – ourselves, our yearning, our need for love – you call it filth, and sin, and heresy. I repent there was no other way open to me. I do not repent my life.”
“Recant the curse you give my kind. Admit I have, as you, a heart and mind.”
– Veronica Franco
EXSM 3989 - Digital Storytelling Class Blog 