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polutropeI watched about half of "Dangerous Beauty." If you don't know it, rejoice: it was mediocre bordering on god-awful. To sum it up: standard period costume drama, now with 100% more courtesans. The main character is a) gorgeous, b) witty, and c) a courtesan. Every man in Venice is falling in lust with her. (Supposedly she became a courtesan after the man she remained deeply in love with throughout the movie scorned her because she had no dowry, and her mother pressured her into it. I missed that part.) Then she offends one man. They have a duel in the middle of the garden, with all of the noblemen of Venice looking on. It started when he offended her verse. Half duel of wit, and half with actual swords. In my opinion, he won the words part. She cut him, and he was infuriated. She eventually gets cornered and half of Venice beats him up. There is a passionate scene in which The Courtesan and her Lover get back together. In the middle, there is a cut to the Beat-Up Guy leaning against a wall, looking beat up. A priest looms over him and looks very scary. He says something like "I can save you, brother" really slowly and disturbingly.
Some stuff happens. It involves Turks. They need help from the King of France. He gets there. The Doge says "So. Let's set some policy."
Henry says, pretty much literally, "So where's the courtesans? I heard you had courtesans here."
The Doge says, "Here's some courtesans."
Henry spots The Courtesan hanging back. He Wants her. They sleep together, he gives Venice the ships, and the Lover gets angry. He goes off and fights the Turks. (At this point, I was betting that he would die. He didn't, unfortunately.) When he comes back, there is plauge, and people are beating up courtesans.
The Courtesan gets put on trial by the guy she duelled with, who is now an inquisitor. There are some heartwarming speeches. The Lover gets everyone she slept with, which includes every male in the room except the inquisitor, to stand up and support her. She doesn't die.
I had some problems. I'll put aside the fact that The Courtesan was a complete Mary Sue. 1) Her Lover's wife was completely undeveloped. They could have had tension between the two of them; instead, she was An Obstacle. 2) None of the men stood up until the Lover was getting arrested. The movie-makers were obviously making some huge feminist point (...I confess choosing a whore's freedom over a wife's obediance, kai ta loipa), but she's not worth them getting into trouble over unless there's a man getting arrested? 3) Either the Lover acted unbelievably irresponsibly, or the movie had an unfortunate cut, because it looked like he was at war, and then a boat came with bad news from Venice and he hopped off and went home. He was, at the time, a commander. That seems like desertion to me. 4) One or both of them should have died. After the trial, it should have been her. I am tired of people likeing their characters so much they can't let them die. She can have her moment of non-confession, but she shouldn't get to live afterwards. Defiance with no consequences is simply immature.
Elaborating on point four, I really did like her speech. They probably got a different writer, because the rest of the script was awful. It was a good speech: it used the "I confess" theme well, it used the repentance theme well. Then the Lover gets up and makes a pretty good speech too, ending with "arrest me." They do, sort of. But on the whole, nothing happens to them, because the script writers bailed them out of it. Really. Just let your characters face the vengeance of the court. It devalues their bravery and defiance if they get out of it okay.
Or maybe I just shouldn't be analyzing an awful movie like this one so much, especially at four thirty in the morning.
Some stuff happens. It involves Turks. They need help from the King of France. He gets there. The Doge says "So. Let's set some policy."
Henry says, pretty much literally, "So where's the courtesans? I heard you had courtesans here."
The Doge says, "Here's some courtesans."
Henry spots The Courtesan hanging back. He Wants her. They sleep together, he gives Venice the ships, and the Lover gets angry. He goes off and fights the Turks. (At this point, I was betting that he would die. He didn't, unfortunately.) When he comes back, there is plauge, and people are beating up courtesans.
The Courtesan gets put on trial by the guy she duelled with, who is now an inquisitor. There are some heartwarming speeches. The Lover gets everyone she slept with, which includes every male in the room except the inquisitor, to stand up and support her. She doesn't die.
I had some problems. I'll put aside the fact that The Courtesan was a complete Mary Sue. 1) Her Lover's wife was completely undeveloped. They could have had tension between the two of them; instead, she was An Obstacle. 2) None of the men stood up until the Lover was getting arrested. The movie-makers were obviously making some huge feminist point (...I confess choosing a whore's freedom over a wife's obediance, kai ta loipa), but she's not worth them getting into trouble over unless there's a man getting arrested? 3) Either the Lover acted unbelievably irresponsibly, or the movie had an unfortunate cut, because it looked like he was at war, and then a boat came with bad news from Venice and he hopped off and went home. He was, at the time, a commander. That seems like desertion to me. 4) One or both of them should have died. After the trial, it should have been her. I am tired of people likeing their characters so much they can't let them die. She can have her moment of non-confession, but she shouldn't get to live afterwards. Defiance with no consequences is simply immature.
Elaborating on point four, I really did like her speech. They probably got a different writer, because the rest of the script was awful. It was a good speech: it used the "I confess" theme well, it used the repentance theme well. Then the Lover gets up and makes a pretty good speech too, ending with "arrest me." They do, sort of. But on the whole, nothing happens to them, because the script writers bailed them out of it. Really. Just let your characters face the vengeance of the court. It devalues their bravery and defiance if they get out of it okay.
Or maybe I just shouldn't be analyzing an awful movie like this one so much, especially at four thirty in the morning.
