At times many of us are products
of our circumstances. Women are more likely to be one by virtue of their being
constantly at the receiving end of men’s ‘mercy’! A well-made film on a
medieval courtesan speaks immensely of both the power and the plight of a woman
caught in a society high on moral and ethical codes, practicing none.
Director: Marshall Herskovitz
Film Clip
Veronica Franco is a courtesan in
Venice. A courtesan is similar to temple and court dancers found in the ancient
royal kingdoms in India. Veronica becomes a courtesan not by choice but
circumstances. The man she loves, a senator from a royal lineage, cannot marry
her because of his class. By dint of her being a courtesan, she is loved and
hated at the same time. But what no one can deny is the fact that Veronica is
much more honest, devout, passionate and innocent of heart, even as she is learned
and intelligent, than all those who claim to be the conscious keepers of
society.
In the end, though, the cruel
joke of Church Inquisition takes almost better of her, but for the one man she
loves standing up for her. He not only wants to save her, but save the Church
and the State from punishing an innocent woman and spare all those high
cultured men who were her ‘accomplices in witchcraft’ for which she was
supposed to be condemned.
Catherine McCormack as Veronica
richly deserves accolades for donning a character into which she effortlessly
immerses herself. Each of her expressions is so delicately constructed that you
cannot but feel with a woman brutalised by a cruel society.
The film also gives a glimpse of
what Inquisition was all about and how dangerous and ruthless the Church-State
combination at one time was!!
- Melwyn Pinto SJ
