VERONICA: We danced our youth In a dreamed-of city
Venice Paradise, proud and pretty
[ALL CLAPPING]
We lived for love and lust and beauty Pleasure then our only duty
[FIREWORKS WHISTLING AND EXPLODING]
Floating then 'twixt heaven and earth And drunk on plenty's blessed mirth
[FIREWORKS EXPLODING]
[FIREWORK WHISTLING]
We thought ourselves eternal then Our glory sealed by God's own pen
But paradise, we found, is always frail
Against man's fear will always fail
[FIREWORKS CONTINUE EXPLODING]
[FOOTSTEPS]
Is there anything wrong, Mama?
Nothing at all.
[DOOR CLOSES]
[FIREWORK WHISTLING]
[CROWD CHEERING]
[WHIMPERING]
Oh, I feel... I feel faint.
I feel faint.
- Come on. - Oh, I feel faint.
[BEATRICE GASPS]
- What are you doing? - Come on, Beatrice.
Quick.
[PANTING]
[VERONICA CHUCKLES]
BEATRICE: Slow down.
Veronica.
[INDISTINCT YELLING]
[WHISTLING]
[VERONICA GASPS]
[VERONICA CHUCKLES]
[INDISTINCT YELLING]
[MAN LAUGHING]
[MAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN]
[GASPS]
- Look. - Hello.
- Look, there's your brother. - Hello, Venice.
- What if he sees us? - He's not looking at us, Bea.
- He's looking at them. - Hello, Venice.
Did you get my letters? You didn't get them?
I'm not talking to you, you broke my heart.
Come on.
[BEATRICE GRUNTS]
- Bea, come on. - No.
[CHATTERING]
[CROWD LAUGHING]
All this for me?
MAFFIO: Oh.
Oh, Livia.
O glorious maid of virtue spare With bosoms like those, who could care?
- My rod, my lady. A hand. - Oh.
MAFFIO: Oh.
- Come. - Hardly. Aah!
Ooh. LIVIA: Ha-ha-ha.
[ALL LAUGHING]
[LAUGHING]
It's Venus, come to bless the Venetians.
[ALL CHEERING]
MARCO: Aunt Luca, how are you?
- Beatrice. - Hello.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
[BEATRICE GROANS]
You smell like a sewer.
Oh. Thank you. That's a fine welcome, little sister.
Look at you. You might make a wife after all.
- Did you see him? - See who?
- You know who. - No.
My husband-to-be. Is he handsome?
Oh, he's, um...
- He's powerful. - He is.
[BELL TOLLING]
Veronica?
Welcome home, Marco.
I think I've missed you.
With all the court ladies to amuse you?
Oh, Roman women, they can't hold a candle to the Venetian.
Nor can French, nor can Florentine, nor any woman from Europe to the Levant.
No doubt you've sampled all.
All but idle amusement until you blossomed.
PIETRO: Marco.
What keeps a son from greeting his parents?
Beauty, I think. LAURA: Mm.
- Oh, Marco. Welcome. - Ha-ha-ha.
You're drenched. Come on, you'll catch your death.
Oh, Veronica. I thought you were gonna miss dinner again.
Ladies have better things to do than poison their minds with books.
PAOLA: Such as? - Such as minding their manners.
- The butcher said he must be paid. - Have you got any postings, Sera?
- Do you know when you sail? - Yes, next week.
Mm. I wish I could go with you, sail the high seas.
Oh, Veronica, high seas, indeed.
She'll never find a husband if she carries on like a child.
How do people marry, Mother?
They strike a bargain.
What's to bargain over if you're in love?
Marriage is a contract, Veronica, not a perpetual tryst.
SERAFINO: Have you got someone in particular in mind?
Sera!
- Ooh. Love poetry, huh? - Sera, give it back.
- Life's harshness all forgave - No. Unh.
- Hearts yearning met - Stop.
When God, your soul did...
Must be true love.
I'd have made a dashing courtier, don't you think?
[VERONICA CHUCKLES THEN GASPS]
Or maybe a pirate. Ha!
- Ha! - Ha! Ooh!
Disengage to the left. And again, back... Back, extend and lunge.
MARCO [SINGING]: Sweetest love I do know...
Back, extend and...
...of thee
Nor in hope the world can show Of a little love for me
- But since that I must... - MAFFIO: I really love you, I really love you
- Please won't you love me - But since that I must die at last
MAFFIO: You know I don't really love you MARCO: 'Tis best to use myself in jest...
I just want to kiss you Don't tell mama, she will want to castrate...
Shut up.
MARCO: But since that I must die at last
'Tis best...
And where might you be going?
Nowhere.
That nowhere has a nice tenor.
Veronica is on the canal with Marco Venier, alone.
Mother Franco.
Oh, Elena, don't call me that. Makes me feel ancient.
Young ladies of marriageable age must be chaperoned.
A good marriage for Veronica could win me a proper commission.
I always liked Marco Venier.
- He'll never marry her if he has her first. - Marry her?
A bride of Marco's will need a king's ransom.
I see my fated stars, your eyes
They melt me as the sun does snow
I bought this in Rome for you.
- You didn't buy it for me. - Yes, I did. I just didn't know it.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
Oh, such an easy gift might easily be taken back again.
Then name me any other gift.
The book will do for now.
I think, perhaps, you're too young to accept what I would truly give you.
Well, I am not so young as you are vain.
You haven't changed, have you?
How would you know?
I fear you mistake me for one of your easy court companions.
No.
I mistook the asking in your eyes.
Do you not like my kiss?
I wish it were not a sin to have liked it so.
God made sin that we might know his mercy.
VERONICA: I find myself within his eyes
And long for more of myself to know
He hears, it seems, my silent cries
And makes my heart my reason's foe
How can this be, to love so quickly?
"Love does not wait," is his reply
What magic weaves his touch To trick me?
How can I now my love deny?
[CHATTERING]
For my bride, a little wedding trinket. ALL: Oh!
[GASPING AND CHATTERING]
Lorenzo Gritti and his fair bride
Your union gives us greatest pride
Good health, great wealth And lasting line
On your union, God's glory shine
[CHATTERING]
[MUSIC PLAYING AND PEOPLE LAUGHING]
- How could they? - How could who what?
Your parents, marry your sister off to that piece of decaying flesh.
That piece of decaying flesh is a cousin of the doge...
...confidant of the pope. The Roman court adores him.
The Roman court doesn't have to sleep with him.
- Oh, you'd be surprised. Save your blushes. - Heh.
They don't sit well with the bluntness of your tongue.
Surely, they could have traded down a few ducats for an ounce of virility.
- Why? - Well, for your sister's sake...
- My sister's a prude. - She might have kept her own bed.
Would hardly be more cruel marrying her to God.
- God isn't as rich as Lorenzo Gritti. - Heh.
[MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING]
Do honor to the houses of Gritti and Venier.
For Venice.
ALL: Oh!
[CHATTERING]
I've seen how you look at her, how she looks at you. I know that look.
- Father. - Do not underestimate love's allure.
Enjoy it. Huh?
But guard your head and your heart.
- You cannot marry her. - I know.
Pietro, come.
[CHATTERING]
[MAN LAUGHING]
I wish that were our bridal chamber.
[VERONICA SIGHS]
Hmm.
- You think me wicked for saying that? - No.
[SIGHS]
You know we can't marry.
I know only what you tell me.
I must marry...
...according to my station...
...and my family's wealth.
Well, then why are you here?
Because I could not stay away.
Well, then don't.
My marriage must be a marriage of state.
My people are true citizens 700 years back.
A coat of arms does not an inheritance make.
- I speak of love and you talk of money. - I speak of my duty.
- And what of your heart? - This isn't about my heart.
This is about politics.
[INHALES DEEPLY]
How romantic.
Marriage isn't romantic. That's why God invented poetry.
To sweeten men's lying lips.
If I were a liar, would I tell you this now?
If you cared for me, you could not tell me this ever.
I want you.
Well, not enough.
[SOBBING]
Daughter, you have reached too high.
I told you marriage is a contract.
Two countries signing a treaty.
To a man of Marco's station, it has nothing to do with love.
But you can still have Marco.
But not in wedlock.
There's an alternative to marriage.
You'll become a courtesan.
I've seen you watching them. I've seen you mesmerized by them.
You'll become a courtesan.
Like your mother used to be.
You were a courtesan?
One of the best.
When?
A long time ago.
Veronica, I had hoped to buy you a good marriage.
But your father...
...drank away your dowry.
Your brother must buy his posting.
And I am too old.
It is you who must support us now.
Look at these hands. Soft.
Too soft for a scullery maid...
...or working the winery.
Perhaps a lady's maid.
Maybe Beatrice will hire you. Wouldn't that be funny?
Just send me to the convent then. To Santo Spirito.
- Veronica, you are not the type. - How would you know?
What are you doing?
Whichever devil you choose, you'll look him in the eye first.
Which is more than my mother ever gave me.
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[BELL TOLLING]
[CHOIR SINGING]
[SCISSORS SNAPPING AND WOMAN SOBBING]
[WOMAN CONTINUES SOBBING]
[PANTING]
First secret of all great courtesans:
You must know pleasure...
...to give pleasure.
Beauty is a manifestation of the divine.
That theory built the Sistine Chapel and it'll do the same for you.
[PAOLA GRUNTS]
PAOLA: Height is an advantage to women, as well as men.
Carriage creates the first impression.
[SHRIEKS]
[SLURPS]
[CRUNCHING]
[LOCK CLICKS THEN FOOTSTEPS]
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[FOOTSTEPS]
Come with me, Veronica.
- Mother, we can't go in there. - Ladies can't go in there.
Courtesans can.
The emperor Pericles relied more for policy on his mistress...
...than he ever did on his lieutenants.
Courtesans, my dear, are the most educated women in the world.
PAOLA: A courtesan is a force of nature in a civilized cloak.
Any chambermaid can flop down, take off her shirt, and men will come.
Your true power comes from something much deeper than beauty.
Cleopatra knew that.
Theadosia. Aspasia.
She could seduce a man at 20 paces...
...without revealing an inch of flesh.
- How? - With her mind.
Desire begins in the mind.
I don't understand.
No, you don't.
Think of Marco.
I know you know anger.
Try disdain.
Amusement.
Submission.
Rapture.
Now...
...make him believe that he is the only man in the universe.
- Who taught you? - Your grandmother.
In order to choose your lovers wisely, you need to understand men.
[CHATTERING]
PAOLA: No matter their shape or size...
...position or wealth...
...they all dream of the temptress.
[CHATTERING]
PAOLA: The irresistible, unapproachable Venus...
...who quickly turns pliable maiden when they've had a hard day.
[INAUDIBLE DIALOGUE]
Come. You can't be squeamish.
If you don't enjoy it...
...they'll smell it, like a dog smells fear.
And they'll hate you for it.
What's there to be squeamish about?
If you touch here.
[GASPING]
Amazing.
Use your fingers lightly, like feathers.
Then harder.
Your tongue, like licking sweets.
Your teeth with restraint.
Just enough...
...to keep him wanting more.
It's wanting...
...that keeps us alive.
[WOMAN LAUGHING]
[WOMAN SCATTING]
[MAN SCATTING]
MAN: Signora.
Your hand.
[CHATTERING]
[WOMAN SCATTING]
[MUSIC PLAYING AND MAN SINGING]
- Paola. - Minister Ramberti.
I'd like to present you to my daughter, Veronica.
It would bring me luck, lady, if you would play a hand for me.
Remember, Veronica, love love.
But do not love the man, or you'll be in his power.
Good luck.
MAN: May I call?
- May I call? - Oh.
Hmm.
Mm.
Lovely.
This is my first bet.
Your first?
Unmistakably.
[COINS CLINKING]
I'm honored.
Repent your empty excesses.
There is no comfort here.
[CROWD CHATTERING]
[SINGING IN LATIN]
Repent, you sinners. Save yourselves.
[MAN CONTINUES SINGING]
Friends, may I ask you, is this God's game?
- Why do you gamble with your souls? - What is it you want, sir?
Your salvation.
[CHUCKLES]
This is no company for one so fair.
[WOMAN SINGING]
Venice may as well be deemed one large, floating brothel.
What's biting your ass this fair evening, cousin?
Um... Poverty. Always puts me in a bad mood.
You'd begrudge the fairer sex their little crumbs?
No. Though they do make more in a night than I a month.
The lovely whores.
What are you doing? Make yourself useful. Give us a rhyme.
I'm no performing monkey for the masses.
Since when?
We're all of us performing monkeys, nephew.
Paupers and poets alike.
I'm at your service, uncle. If it's rhyme you wish...
...I shall gladly oblige.
MARCO: Mm-hm.
- A subject? - Doge?
Ah.
Venice, to celebrate our plenty.
Ah.
Born in glory
The virgin's exultation
Fair and mighty Venice
Queen of the sea Unconquered maid
Sovereign isle is she
[CROWD APPLAUDS]
MAFFIO: Chaste goddess
Rising from the foamy depths
Gateway 'twixt distant East
- Wine? - And West
Please.
Mother of liberty
Child of honor
[MAFFIO CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY]
Veronica? Veronica.
Curb your surprise, Signor Venier. It's vaguely insulting.
- Signor Venier? Don't be absurd. - I'm not being absurd.
I'm just treating you with the same indifference you afforded me.
- You confuse indifference with honesty. - Ha, ha.
- You confuse honesty with venality. - You think me venal?
You are a venal cur.
Hello, Marco. Something I can do for you?
MAFFIO: Here, beauty, wit and wealth combined
Gateway 'twixt distant East and West
Mother of liberty Child of honor
Home and hearth and heart
To men of valor
[WHISPERS INDISTINCTLY]
Perhaps the fair maiden can do better.
A duel.
[WHISPERS INDISTINCTLY]
[CLEARS THROAT]
Venice
Mother
Virgin, queen and goddess
To be all five at once is no mean trick
If women's lust lost Eden Our redress to be
Hearth, heart and home to every prick
[CROWD GASPING AND LAUGHING]
Who is she? Who is this girl?
Hmm.
Sweet lagoon
That brings us lovely life
[CHUCKLES]
Rank with greed
And trade's devouring strife
[CHUCKLES]
[CROWD LAUGHING]
Lady Venice Her baubled self does show
Her raiment, as the moon, doth glow
[ALL CLAPPING]
Her wisdom...
Her wisdom shines bright As envious day
Her wives, like booty
Are locked away
Bravo, bravo.
MAN: Brava. Brava.
Never, ever hide that face again.
[CHUCKLES]
[EXHALES]
[GASPS]
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[FOOTSTEPS]
Children, my dear, are a deficit.
It's not infallible.
- It's more comfortable than a turtle shell. - Mm.
Mm.
So...
You didn't tell me everything.
How could I?
They won't all be Rambertis.
Who's next?
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
MAN: Honor us with a poem, Signora Veronica.
I would be too humbled before so eloquent a gathering of minds.
Make us laugh as you did before. Heh.
Perhaps, if I am clever, next time I shall make you weep.
You shall make me weep if you do not give me leave to see you again.
- Thursday? - Every Thursday?
I shall count the hours in between.
Scrape any lower, you're gonna have shoes for earrings.
[LAUGHS]
Why, Marco Venier, I do believe you're jealous.
One can only be jealous of what one cannot have.
And you cannot have me.
There's not a woman in Venice I can't have.
And there's not a man in Venice that I can't have.
We are so alike, you and me.
We both know that love is inconvenient, if not impossible.
So why not enjoy what little we're allowed together?
I'm all booked up.
MAN: Allow me. VERONICA: Heh.
- Well? - Well, what?
Ah.
- Well, I see you're enjoying yourself. - Yes, thank you, Signor Venier.
Domenico. Otherwise, you shall make me feel very old.
- Oh, let me help you. - No, no, no, it's...
It's not a sight for such beautiful eyes.
I'm not afraid of flesh.
The man who bid you rhyme.
Francesco Martenengo, admiral of our fleet.
Andrea Tron. Whatever you do, don't make him mad.
Bishop De La Torre. It's said his collection of paintings...
...is surpassed only by his collection of women.
- Heh. So many? - Biblical.
Ramberti you know. Minister of Defense.
I tell you now, he's in love with you.
You say that as if you thought it a disease.
You think, perhaps, I want you for myself?
- I would not presume. - Pity.
I was flattered to think you might harbor such suspicions...
...under the circumstances.
I would be happy to attend to you under any circumstances.
[PEACOCK SQUAWKS THEN WOMEN GASP]
[PEACOCK SQUAWKING AND WOMEN LAUGHING]
"All the best courtesans have one."
Signora, Signor Marco Venier wishes your audience.
[SQUAWKS]
A peacock does not an inheritance make.
[MAFFIO SNICKERING]
Put the pig in the kitchen. Those can go at the back somewhere.
The fish.
Look at these gowns. Each is a unique work of art.
Every detail...
[ALL LAUGHING]
[CHATTERING]
[WOMAN LAUGHS]
MAN: Wine, my dear? WOMAN: Of course.
- Charming spectacle. - Heh. I've seen better.
Must be interesting, being in a room full of men...
...most you've seen with their pants down.
Puts it all in some kind of perspective.
I was wondering, um...
...I would enjoy it if perhaps we might exchange verse again...
...some night...
...Veronica.
We can't afford one another, Maffio.
We're both courtiers singing for our supper.
Of course.
WOMAN: Have you tried it?
MAN 1: No. WOMAN: Ha-ha-ha. You must.
[MAN 2 LAUGHS]
What was cousin Maffio on about?
The pleasures of poetry.
[BOTH CHUCKLE]
Did you enjoy the hunt?
Well, the hunt possesses, doesn't it, such a cruel beauty?
- Much like your own. - Heh.
- Is my beauty cruel? - Oh, I think so.
To those that you refuse, yes.
It is only my refusal that arouses your longing.
- You underrate yourself. - Flatterer.
Heh. Put it to the test. Say yes.
And then see if you're rid of me.
Oh, let's see.
If I'm right, you'll tire of me. And if you're right, I'll tire of you.
Maybe we should just stay as we are.
You know, I do regret...
...the hurt that I caused you.
With all my heart.
The heart is higher up.
Her father owns half of Lombardy, and her aunt is the pope's niece.
An alliance with this family is a godsend, Marco.
Marco, you will marry Giulia De Lezze.
For Venice, if for no other reason.
If I didn't know you, I'd say you had the feigned indifference of a man in love.
Go on, son.
Tell the truth and shame the devil.
So the Turks are on the move again?
The sultan wants the Mediterranean for his bathing pool.
What is that heavenly thing?
Ermine.
MARCO: Veronica?
- Mm. - Veronica.
- I'm an ass. - Ha-ha-ha.
Veronica.
My little poetess.
MAFFIO: I'm an ass.
You are the brightest star in the Venetian firmament.
MAFFIO: Aah! Ha-ha-ha. - The co... Excuse me.
- The coldest... - Oh.
- ...but also the brightest. - Mm.
[THUDDING AND CLATTERING]
My uncle tells me...
...I have the feigned indifference of a man...
Of a man about to be married.
Huh?
I'm getting married, Veronica. Congratulate me.
Felicitations on your grand match.
Well, generously put.
- Do you love her? - Do I have to?
Well, I hope it's a profitable union.
[EXHALES AUDIBLY]
[INHALES DEEPLY]
Do you like poetry?
I know the Psalms.
Tell me a secret.
- I have no secrets. - Everyone has secrets.
All right, tell me a desire.
A deep desire.
I hope to give you many strong sons.
Heh. No, I mean something...
...for you.
Something just for you.
To be a good wife to you is my only desire.
VERONICA: 'Tis not wanton flesh But love that brings me shame
Mocked by fate Imprisoned by my womb
By jealousy possessed Which slow consumes
An ice-cold, gloomy, vicious flame
I love the very weapons Which me wound
Lucky is the man that can inspire your poet's heart.
- Ha-ha-ha. - The only form she's mastered is a whore's.
Honestly, I didn't think Uncle was still capable of getting it up.
What did you do to him...
...to get him to publish this little pile of ditties?
Won't give the time of day to his own flesh and blood.
- She worked for it. - Ha!
I'll bet she worked for it.
What do you cost these days, Veronica?
If your prick is as limp as your verse...
...no price could possibly purchase time enough.
[ALL LAUGHING]
[CHUCKLES]
[ALL GASP]
MARCO: Maffio.
Just making a point, coz.
MARCO: Very brave. What point would that be?
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I apologize.
[LAUGHING]
Have you the guts to try again? Blade to blade and pen to pen?
CROWD: Oh.
[CHATTERING]
Madonna Veronica.
CROWD: Oh. MAFFIO: Oh!
[CROWD LAUGHING]
Veritably unique whore
May sing and rhyme and more
Still is at best a slut With every horny mutt
[VERONICA SHRIEKS]
You pride yourself on arts and letters And fucking best your manly betters
- Ha! - Aah!
[ALL LAUGHING]
I save the goodly wives of Venice From their husbands' lustful menace
[VERONICA GRUNTING]
Oh. Aah! Ha, ha.
[MAFFIO LAUGHING]
Then you confess you love...
...to... to rut
And your beauty's gladly stuck
ALL: Ooh.
Now, now, now.
Little mistake.
MAN 1: Ooh. MAN 2: Ha, ha.
[ALL LAUGHING]
I confess I fuck divinely Those who love and well opine me
I confess I fuck divinely
Those who richly wine and dine me
[ALL LAUGHING]
On the page or on the sheet You'll never find a tongue more sweet
On the page or on the sheet
[GROANS]
On the page, on the sheet. Greet, bleat.
On the page or on the sheet A greater hack you'll never meet
[YELLS]
[GRUNTS]
You fight like a sailor. VERONICA: I learned from a sailor.
Now, stop stalling.
Aah. MAFFIO: Aah!
ALL: Ooh.
Recant the curse you give my kind
Admit I have, as you, a heart and mind
A greedy hand, an empty heart Is all that wrests your legs apart
[GRUNTS]
[MAFFIO GRUNTS THEN PANTING]
[MAFFIO GRUNTING]
[MAFFIO GRUNTS THEN VERONICA PANTING]
[BOTH GRUNTING]
[GRUNTS]
[PANTING]
[VERONICA PANTING]
Aah! CROWD: Ooh.
[MARCO GRUNTS THEN CROWD GASPS]
MAN: Give way.
[DOOR OPENS]
[FOOTSTEPS]
MAN: How did you let this paragon of cities...
...turn into a cesspit of vice and depravity?
For as the waters flow through Venice every day...
...and wash away the filth...
...so the Lord will wash away this evil.
Do you not agree, my friend?
I think not.
A soul in torment is a soul without God.
All flesh is grass.
We must all meet our maker. To this end, we must all come.
Even Venetians.
You can be saved, my brother.
It's your desire that makes you weak.
You can cure me of my desire, young idealist?
No, I can't.
[INHALES DEEPLY]
Tonight's too many hours away.
My affections aren't mine to give you tonight.
What?
I have mouths to feed, like you.
- Well, I'll support you. - No.
No, there will be no money between us.
So you'd...? You'd continue with this life?
I have no choice. This is the life I was given.
No.
You do have a choice.
If I were yours alone, your property, chaste and silent, you'd soon tire of me.
- You're wrong. - Am I?
If you cared for me, you could not do this.
Do not ask of me what you cannot give yourself.
Your wife is waiting.
What ails you, Marco?
What do you mean?
I want to be a good wife.
Impending deprivation always makes me hungry.
My dear, you're not eating.
But you are though, darling.
There'll be no more of these little delicacies if the sultan turns nasty.
[BELL TOLLING]
Why are the bells ringing at this time of night?
Marco, Marco.
The sultan has attacked. He took eight ships near Malta.
If we don't sail for Cyprus by Easter, we won't be sailing back.
Sooner, I think.
If we can't rally France, we won't be sailing back.
Turks have three ships to our one.
- Will the king of France help us? - If we amuse him.
- King Henry's a boy in man's breeches. - A powerful boy.
A boy nonetheless.
DOMENICO: He commands a lot of ships and has no love for the Turks.
[MEN YELLING INDISTINCTLY]
Your wife believes she has bewitched you.
What harm is there in bewitching a married man?
That man has to have heirs. He's to be a senator soon.
So he shall.
What God and greed have joined together...
...let no love put asunder.
The woman you love is not good.
Not pure, not meek.
I am a courtesan. It's the only thing you let me do and I don't want...
I can't bear it, I can't bear it.
I know I have no right, but I won't share you.
But I must share you. I must bear that, I have no choice.
No, please don't envy Giulia. She will never have what you have.
Please trust me.
- I don't know how. - I'll earn your trust. Let me.
- You'll go off to war and die. - No, not with you to come back to.
Stay with me for as long as we have.
- I'll be your private whore. - No, don't ever say that.
You're Veronica Franco.
You're a poet.
And you're my lady.
Cancel my appointments, please.
It's a treacherous game you're playing, my little idiot.
You outdid me long ago.
I know that.
And the irony is, it's not because you're prettier than I was.
Because you're not.
Nor that you're a better lay than I was, because you aren't.
It's because you are smarter than I am.
You have a gift. Don't throw it away.
For God's sake, Mother, haven't I done enough?
He's a client like all the others. Love him and you lose.
[VERONICA SHRIEKS]
[HORSE NEIGHS]
[HORSE SNORTS]
I must go, King Henry's coming.
I'll get my things.
[CHATTERING]
Aah. It's been selfish of you, keeping her hidden away.
- We could use her counsel. - You came back in time...
...to seduce the French king.
- He's arriving tomorrow. - He'd let Paris burn for a good lay.
- He'll hardly fight for Venice. - Depends on how well Venice lays him.
I don't mind fighting, but I prefer a war that I can win.
Without France's ships, it's a suicide mission.
- Simple as that. - MAN 1: So, all right, the navy is how strong?
MAN 2: Pretty strong, but we need more ships.
Glorious architecture.
Indeed.
[GIGGLING]
Good Henry, good Henry, we must fight.
We must fight infidels here, before we can beat them abroad.
Or we can find them at home.
Take this paper to the king.
No, I'm a man of God. Give him this paper.
France has some too. We prefer a heretic to a zealot, they're not so serious.
Zealots are creating difficulties everywhere.
[CHATTERING]
Our captains tell us the Muslim Turks have been spotted near Cyprus.
Mm. DOGE: Rather presumptuous, don't you think?
Rather presumptuous, don't you agree?
To think the Christian Church wouldn't come to its defense?
What about these courtesans Venice is so famous for?
I'm sure the sultan is far too experienced to gamble...
I want to meet them.
You got them nearby?
[MURMURING INDISTINCTLY]
[WHISPERS]
[CROWD CHATTERING]
Who's that? She's not with the others.
Veronica Franco, Your Excellency. The poetess.
KING HENRY: Is she a courtesan?
She is, Your Highness.
Tell her to come forward.
I want her.
Most exquisite.
- You do me great honor, Majesty. - I take you from the one you love.
I come willingly.
You have to say that because I'm a king.
I have to say that because Venice needs you.
[LAUGHS]
What do you yearn for, King Henry?
[GASPS]
- You've heard the rumors, Veronica? - Yes, sire.
The king is a pervert.
What do you really yearn for, King Henry?
Tears.
- Tears for whom? - Your tears.
You yearn for my tears?
I don't think so.
And what do I yearn for?
Why don't we find out?
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[CHATTERING]
MAN: Arms, hup.
[GROANS]
[SIGHS]
You'll get your ships.
[GASPS]
[CHEERING]
- Poet to kings. - A national asset.
More than a hundred French ships.
Perhaps we should make you ambassador to the emperor.
GIACOMO: Ha, ha. He doesn't deserve her.
Would he sooner we didn't get the ships?
He would rather he had the right to refuse even a king your hand.
- I could not refuse. - Couldn't you?
I think you like it.
And you like what it has made me.
- I don't like what it makes me. - Well, then, why did you not stop me?
You're not mine to stop!
And whose fault is that?
You sleep with Giulia every night for duty's sake.
I slept with the king of France once for duty's sake. Who does not forgive?
Perhaps I just can't live with it.
But I love you.
Marco.
Marco!
I pray God to watch over you.
Save your prayers, Veronica.
The devil's got my heart now. God hasn't a chance.
[PRAYING INDISTINCTLY]
[MEN YELLING AND SWORDS CLANGING]
[YELLING]
[PRAYING CONTINUES]
We were hoping you could tell us what was happening with the war.
What do you know?
Just that we're fighting the Turks again.
And that's all?
Their sultan sent us an ultimatum.
Either we surrender Cyprus or he takes it by force.
Our fleets have headed east to defend it.
Is Cyprus so important that we must send our husbands away to battle?
Without Cyprus, we lose control over the eastern Mediterranean.
If they cannot be contained, the Turks will find their way to Christian shores.
I know we own it, but where exactly is Cyprus?
My husband, do you know if he is alive or dead?
Alive and well, Signora Bragadin.
And mine?
The admiral is alive. And a hero.
- And my husband? - Who is your husband?
Vicco. My husband is Pietro Vicco.
Well, he's young and strong. I'm sure he'll come home safely.
You know her husband well.
Not at all well, but his reputation precedes him.
Go on, ask her.
Ask her what you're longing to.
Ask her what draws our husbands back to her again and again...
...like pigs to a trough.
The Latin for banana is ariena.
Banana tree is pala.
[ALL GASPING]
[GASPS]
A woman's greatest and most hard-won asset...
...is an education.
Just because you can say it in Latin, doesn't make it any less obscene.
Just because you took a vow, doesn't mean you know how to love.
Either that whore leaves or I leave.
No Christian woman could tolerate such behavior under her roof.
You're unfit to be a mother.
At least I am a mother.
You won't be once Lorenzo hears of this.
Thank you for your assistance, Signora Franco.
He's alive.
[FOOTSTEPS]
You made many enemies today.
They were already enemies.
Now they will become more so.
Is that why you came? To warn me?
When my daughter is old enough, I want you to make her a courtesan.
[CHUCKLES]
I will not pimp your daughter.
Look at the life you live, the freedom that you have.
Will you deny my daughter the same chance?
[SCOFFS]
Turn right up ahead.
[MAN YELLS AND DOG BARKS]
Look.
Look outside.
Get away.
[WOMEN LAUGHING]
This is where we go to die.
You will not end here.
Livia. Venice's reigning Venus.
Get away.
VERONICA: A jealous lover did that.
Get away.
Who wants her now?
My cage seems bigger than yours, but it's still a cage.
- If you want sympathy, you won't get it. - I don't want your sympathy.
Do you know what my daughter's nurse told her this morning?
That in a girl's voice lies temptation.
A known fact.
Eloquence in a woman means promiscuity.
Promiscuity of the mind leads to promiscuity of the body.
She doesn't believe her yet, but she will.
She'll grow up just like her mother.
She'll marry, bear children and honor her family...
...spend her youth in needlepoint and rue the day she was born a girl.
And when she dies...
...she'll wonder why she obeyed all the rules of God and country...
...because no biblical hell could ever be worse...
...than this state of perpetual inconsequence.
[BELL TOLLING]
VERONICA: Silent God ignores my prayer
And renders lost what once was fair
Once blissful, fortune's favorite city
Now wheeled fate turns
No trace of pity
[BELL TOLLING]
MAN: Citizens of Venice!
Look around you now at the disease and deaths...
...that have taken over our once-beautiful city, and tell me...
...this plague is not a punishment from God!
We are surrounded by harlots and courtesans!
We must cast out those who tempt us...
...for we are a city of shame, of fornication...
...and carnal practices that defy description.
We will go the way of Sodom and Gomorrah...
...and become dust in the sands of time.
Marco!
There is news from Venice.
[BELL TOLLS]
[WOMEN WAILING]
MAN: The corruption of their flesh, the paint on their faces...
...the vile coloring of their hair, their wanton dress.
Look on them and look within yourselves at the last...
[MEN YELLING]
You're alive.
[GASPING]
Forgive me. Forgive me.
[PAOLA SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
[GASPING]
Please forgive me.
I'm sorry.
[CHATTERING]
WOMAN: God's vengeance on you, whore.
WOMAN: You filthy harlot!
[CLAMORING]
Let go of her!
WOMAN: You die!
Signora Veronica Franco...
...I hereby summon you to appear before the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition.
You have no jurisdiction here, senator. I speak for the Church.
The Inquisition?
- In Venice? - We have 56,000 dead.
Living want answers.
They may be wrong, but they want them the same.
Be glad those bastards aren't burning us out.
You can stop it.
If the doge of Venice were to come out in defense of a notorious courtesan...
Oh, now she's notorious?
Before she was a national asset.
It would topple the government. These are grim times, senator.
I can no longer be a party to this travesty.
You're an elected official. You cannot refuse your office.
If you compel me to continue, then you compel me to condone the proceedings.
Am I mistaken, or is Venice still a free republic?
Do you think ruining yourself will help her?
[DOOR OPENS]
[YELLING]
[CLAMORING]
[STAFF THUDDING]
By order of the pope, the Holy Inquisition has come to Venice...
...to seek out heresy and beliefs anathema to the Church.
Veronica Franco...
...you have been denounced on the charge of witchcraft...
...a mortal sin punishable by death.
Should you confess and repent at any time during these proceedings...
...you will be mercifully welcomed back...
...into the bosom of the Holy Mother Church.
- Your Holiness, I may only repent... - Silence!
The accused shall make no utterance...
...except to answer our questions or to confess.
Proceed, monsignor.
Venice...
...ever a noble republic, home of learning...
...art, commerce, has been brought low by war and plague.
Do you know why, Signora Franco?
I am not that wise, Your Grace.
Tell us, how many of the worthy men of this city...
...have you taken into your chamber?
I have not counted my lovers.
More than 20?
[CROWD MURMURING]
You will answer the question.
- Yes. - More than 100?
- I don't know. - You cannot remember them.
Yet for each, you paraded your milky breast and hair of spun copper.
For each, you learned his unique favored touch...
...and enchanted him to believe he was the only man in the universe.
What was the average number in a single week?
I told you, I enchanted no one.
Did you feign love with more than 10 weekly?
Or would perhaps five or six sate you?
- I never feigned love. - Then for what did they pay you?
For the dream of love...
...as it cannot exist in this world that you've created.
For the hope there might exist on earth, some corner of this paradise that...
MAFFIO: Paradise?
When 56,000 have fallen?
You say this. You...
...who fill your home with feasting and dancing while Venice suffers?
Who creates a sumptuous world of flesh and depravity...
...of orgiastic rites invoking the devil?
- This is paradise? - The only devilry is your spite!
- Silence! - He's jealous of what he cannot have.
You will not intrude into the proceedings.
I'm a senator of Venice. The Inquisition is here by our consent.
And this is an ecclesiastical court. You are here by my consent.
This is a personal vendetta.
You will abide by our rules or be removed.
Is that understood?
The senator speaks the truth.
I was bewitched by this woman.
[MURMURING]
In my weakness...
...I fell under her spell to pathetic ruin.
It is only by the grace of God that I stand here today.
I did not seek your love.
- Because I could not pay your fee. - No.
- No? - No, I loved another.
In other words, you cast your spell...
...over all who cross your path whether you want them or not.
You compel sacred love to garner riches. What is this if not witchcraft?
- No. - No?
Ever give yourself to a man who couldn't pay?
I gave my heart where riches were...
- Answer! - I did what was necessary to live.
Did you ever give yourself to a man who could not pay?
What other profession will you allow me?
- How shall I survive if I cannot marry? - You will answer the question!
Why, when you're determined to damn me whatever I say?
Look at her.
Feel her wrath, her power.
She, who lures the noble fathers of Venice from their wives...
...their children, their very ability to lead the republic!
It is she and her kind who have turned God's hands against us, Your Grace.
Your Grace, we must do our duty.
Veronica Franco, you hover at the brink of extermination and hell.
You will return to this room tomorrow...
...to hear God's merciful judgment, and, I hope...
...to repent before that judgment takes its course.
Remove the prisoner.
[DOOR OPENS]
You must save yourself.
How?
Confess whatever foolishness they put before you...
- What, that I am a witch? - What does it matter what you say?
I would be saying it.
There is no honor with fools like these.
God will forgive you.
Marco, if I give them the lie, I give them my soul.
Renounce everything I ever was.
- My love, my words, my heart. - Yes, but you would live.
As someone else.
I've let you go too many times.
I can't do it again.
There is no choice.
I will never see you again.
[DOOR CLOSES]
[SOBBING]
[STAFF THUDDING]
Veronica Franco, you have been denounced a sorceress.
Either confess and plead mercy or stand to receive my judgment.
I will confess, Your Grace.
[CROWD MURMURING]
That will please God. Proceed.
I confess that as a young girl, I loved a man...
...who would not marry me for want of a dowry.
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.
She does not speak to the charge.
I confess I embraced a whore's freedom over a wife's obedience.
This is not repentance.
What am I to do? I must confess my evil as the Church instructs.
- These are my sins. - Her mortal sins are not at issue.
She must repent witchcraft or be condemned.
Perhaps she heads in that direction.
You have been warned.
The Church cannot deny her right to seek God's mercy.
That's the law. Confession is sacrosanct.
Do not instruct me on the laws of the Church.
Then I call upon the doge to demand that the Inquisition abide by them.
[CHATTERING]
If Christian mercy is gone, then at least Venetian justice still exists.
I pray Your Grace has heard enough of this.
Does seem odd, Your Holiness...
...that the Holy Mother Church would deny a sinner confession.
I see no harm in hearing her.
She will save or damn herself.
The prisoner has already damned herself.
But if it pleases the esteemed doge of Venice...
...she may continue her heresy.
I confess I find more ecstasy in passion than in prayer.
[GASPS AND CHATTERING]
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.
Veronica, stop!
Save yourself, please.
Such surrender has been mine.
I confess I hunger still to be filled and inflamed.
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.
Your Grace, is this necessary?
She hopes to bewitch us all.
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 mete out.
- Are you finished? - No, Your Grace.
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 to love...
...you call it filth and sin and heresy.
Enough. One last time before you are condemned, do you repent or not?
I repent there was no other way open to me.
I do not repent my life.
Veronica Franco, the Holy Inquisition...
...has heard the evidence against you and is satisfied.
- In the name of the pope... - No!
More confession to be heard!
- In the name of... - I demand rights of confession!
- You are not on trial! - You're still on consecrated ground.
I confess I am her accomplice.
If she is a witch, then I am damned with her. Damn me because I do not repent.
I will not live without her.
Your Grace, this is a cynical trick. He does this to save her.
She's a witch, proven and convicted. The devil in our midst!
And I am her accomplice!
Condemn her if you will, but arrest me too.
Arrest a senator of Venice for witchcraft.
You think I shrink from judging the rich?
No, I welcome it. I wait for the shackles.
He speaks with his heart and not his head, Your Grace.
He is blinded by his own lust.
If she is a witch, then so is every woman in Venice.
[CHATTERING]
Silence!
We are a strange city, Your Holiness.
Perhaps accursed.
And perhaps we live in a peculiar state of grace.
I am not alone in loving this woman...
...though I love her far, far more than they.
We accomplices were many...
...and proud.
If we do not speak now...
...if Venice does not stand up now...
...and acknowledge who she is, then we are all damned.
Not before this court, before eternity.
BOLOGNETTI: If what he says is true...
...then you must speak the names of your accomplices.
Your Grace...
...the men who loved her were under her spell.
They had no volition.
Shall we punish even the victims of her evil?
If the soul of the city is corrupt...
...and you help me root it out, I will spare your life.
I had no accomplices, Your Grace.
Stand.
Stand!
All you who defiled your sacred marriage beds...
...and declare your sin, stand up with me...
...as we stood against our enemies at sea!
There.
You see, Your Grace...
...there are no accomplices.
He does this to rescue her from your justice.
Then I stand alone for Venice and for this woman.
Arrest the senator.
His trial will commence tomorrow.
Minister, do you wish to speak?
I repeat, do you have something to say to this court?
I am standing.
Your Grace.
Perhaps there is another who would like to stand.
- Perhaps we've been hasty, Your Grace. - What are you doing?
Witchcraft may be too harsh a charge.
Is everything I heard about this city true?
Surely the Holy Inquisition need not sully its hands with a common whore.
This is a matter for the state, don't you think?
I leave this woman to Venice...
...which richly deserves her.
[ALL CHEERING]
Ha.