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.
The film was released as A Destiny of Her Own in some regions, and was re-titled The Honest Courtesan for the UK video release.
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 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.
In your high school photo
You looked so young and na?ve
Now I heard you got a nickname
The lady of the leash
Well I find you on a midnight shift
I bet you had your fair share of stiffs
There were onerous odours
I've got to admit
'Cause you're a dangerous, dangerous
A dangerous beauty
So plainfully plain to us
You're doing your duty
Who you got there in that hood, you look so fancy in those photographs
With your rubber gloves on you're a favourite with the Chiefs of Staff
You're doing such a wonderful job
You're a natural at working with dogs
Keeping everyone awake at night
With a touch of the prods
Well you're a dangerous, dangerous
A dangerous beauty
Yeah, disdainfully, painfully
A bit of booty, yeah
You're a dangerous, dangerous
A dangerous beauty
Beauty
Well you're a dangerous, dangerous
A dangerous beauty
If I was your captain
I'd put you soon to bed
What I say
Yeah everybody
Beauty
Everybody now, yeah
Are you all tied up, put in a box
Yeah, dangerous
Giving them electric shocks
I've seen the gloves coming off
Dangerous