Cariani and the Courtesans *** (1987, Paul McGann, Lucy Hancock, Clive Merrison, Michael Gough, Diana Quick, Simon Callow) – Classic Movie Review 11,911

Writer-director Leslie Megahey’s 1987 BBC2 TV film Cariani and the Courtesans stars Paul McGann, Lucy Hancock, Clive Merrison, Michael Gough, Diana Quick and Simon Callow.

Charles Gray narrates an exquisitely shot tale of art and intrigue, set in 16th-century Venice. McGann plays Italian painter Giovanni Cariani (1490–1547), who falls in love with the beautiful Maria (Hancock), whom he later suspects to be a prostitute and thief.

It is a stylised but very watchable mystery, even if the film ultimately delights the eye more than it intrigues.

Giovanni Cariani, A Concert, oil on canvas, 92 x 130 cm, c. 1518-1520.

It is a fictionalised account of the Bergamo painter’s time in Venice, with Cariani (Paul McGann) interacting with other historical characters, such as Tullia d’Aragona (Diana Quick), Marcantonio Raimondi (Simon Callow), and Francesco Albani (Michael Gough), with a brief appearance by Albrecht Dürer (Frederik de Groot). The creative narrative is woven around the painting of a number of Cariani’s works, mainly Four Courtesans and Three Gentlemen.

Megahey previously used the same narrative device on the 1979 production Schalcken the Painter.

Of course fictionalised biopics are of questionable value, entertaining though they may be, especially when the subject is so little known as Giovanni Cariani, and a less creative narrative would have been more informative, though relatively little is known about him anyway.

Also in the cast are Louiza Livingstone, Robert Goodman, Linda Polan, Caroline England, Teresa Benham, and Anthony Milner.

First shown on 5 August 1987, it is the 17th film in the ScreenPlay TV drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,911

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Cariani’s Adoration of the Shepherds, an early work of c. 1515-17.