One of my all time favorite movies, preparing a 3 hour lecture, and Dante's Ninth Circle of Hell

I'm preparing a power point lecture on Romance genre conventions and was thinking about what movies I'll use clips of to spice things up.

One of my all time favorite movies is,

Dangerous Beauty (1998) is a biographical drama film directed by Marshall Herskovitz. It is adapted from the non-fiction book The Honest Courtesan, by Margaret Rosenthal, (also the title of the UK video release), about the life of Veronica Franco (played by Catherine McCormack), a courtesan in 16th century Venice.

Dangerous Beauty, in my opinion, puts Shakespeare in Love a far distant second in terms of historical romance drama movies. The script, the acting, the cinematography--everything is first rate in this movie . . .

Veronica Franco (c.1546-1591)

a poem by Veroncia Franco,

Leave me, foolish ideas and useless hopes

Leave me, foolish ideas and useless hopes
blind, voracious and hot desires,
Leave me, eager ardour -- bitter thoughts,
ever companioned with this ceaseless poison;

Leave me, sweet memories, rough corrosive
chain; even now my heart unshackles herself,
all that's in her welcomes reason's hard curb:
so lost for a time, freedom's a relief.

And you, poor soul, so overwhelmed by fears,
released at last: turn to God; with a seemly
pride restore your mind to what it was.

Compel fate, break the snares, crack fate's wall;
then light, free and nimble you'll simply walk
away from harm into a safer path.


Anyways, I need to get to bed soon as the lecture is tomorrow morning . . . 3 hour lectures!--ugh, whoever created the 3 hour lecture for Korean university EFL classrooms . . . well, they should experience Dante's Ninth Circle . . .

From wikipedia, "Traitors, distinguished from the "merely" fraudulent in that their acts involve betraying one in a special relationship to the betrayer, are frozen in a lake of ice known as Cocytus. Each group of traitors is encased in ice to a different depth, ranging from only the neck and through to complete immersion. The circle is divided into four concentric zones:

Round 1: Caïna, named for Cain, is home to traitors to their kindred. The souls here are immersed in the ice up to their necks. (Canto XXXII)"


Although this might also do the trick . . .

G'night.
J