Set in 1900, Lili d’Alengy, a Parisian cocotte at the height of her fame, flees Paris to hide her “idiot” daughter. There she meets Maria Montessori, who is pioneering a teaching method that may help the child.
A celebration of love and creative inspiration takes place in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp of the 20th century. A young poet, who is plunged into the heady world of Moulin Rouge, begins a passionate affair with the club's most notorious and beautiful star.
Veronica is brilliant, gifted and beautiful, but the handsome aristocrat she loves, Marco Venier, cannot marry her because she is penniless and of questionable family. So Veronica's mother, Paola, teaches her to become a courtesan, one of the exotic companions favored by the richest and most powerful Venetian men. Veronica courageously uses her charms to change destiny -- and to give herself a chance at true love.
After his wealthy family prohibits him from marrying the woman he is in love with, Devdas Mukherjee's life spirals further and further out of control as he takes up alcohol and a life of vice to numb the pain.
In medieval Japan, a woman and his children journey to find the family's patriarch, who was exiled years before.
In early 20th century, Charles Swann, a young and wealthy dandy, spends most of his time hanging out with the old nobility, notably the Duke and Duchess of Guermantes. He is madly in love with a pretty demi-mondaine, Odette de Crécy. Idle, Swann surrenders complacently to the torments of jealousy. After hours of suffering, he manages to spend a night with Odette. In the morning, he believes that ultimately, this one is "not his type". However, we find him, many years later, alongside Odette who, now his wife, gave him a daughter. In the company of Baron de Charlus, brother of the Duchess of Guermantes, he wonders about the failure of his sentimental life, so far removed from this absolute he dreamed of.
At the end of the 19th century, Shanghai is divided into several foreign concessions. In the British concession, a number of luxurious “flower houses” are reserved for the male elite of the city. Since Chinese dignitaries are not allowed to frequent brothels, these establishments are the only ones that these men can visit. They form a self-contained world, with its own rites, traditions and even its own language. The men don’t only visit the houses to frequent the courtesans but also to dine, smoke opium, play mahjong and relax. The women working there are known as the “flowers of Shanghai”.
In Edo Period Japan, a noblewoman's banishment for her love affair with a lowly page signals the beginning of her inexorable fall.
In eighteenth-dynasty Egypt, Sinuhe, a poor orphan, becomes a brilliant physician and with his friend Horemheb is appointed to the service of the new Pharoah. Sinuhe's personal triumphs and tragedies are played against the larger canvas of the turbulent events of the 18th dynasty. As Sinuhe is drawn into court intrigues he learns the answers to the questions he has sought since his birth.
A home, a motorcar, servants, the latest fashions: the most eligible and most finicky bachelor in Paris offers them all to Gigi. But she, who's gone from girlish gawkishness to cultured glamour before our eyes, yearns for that wonderful something money can't buy.
The story of courtesan and dance-hall girl Emma Hamilton, including her relationships with Sir William Hamilton and Admiral Horatio Nelson and her rise and fall, set during the Napoleonic Wars.
Life in 1847 Paris is as spirited as champagne and as unforgiving as the gray morning after. In gambling dens and lavish soirees, men of means exert their wills and women turned courtesans exult in pleasure. One such woman is Marguerite Gautier, who begins a sumptuous romance with Armand Duval.
Lola Montes, previously a great adventuress, is reduced to being the attraction of a circus after having been the lover of various important men.
Cousin Bette is a poor and lonely seamstress, who, after the death of her prominent and wealthy sister, tries to ingratiate herself into lives of her brother-in-law, Baron Hulot, and her niece, Hortense Hulot. Failing to do so, she instead finds solace and company in a handsome young sculptor she saves from starvation. But the aspiring artist soon finds love in the arms of another woman, Hortense, leaving Bette a bitter spinster. Bette plots to take revenge on the family who turned her away and stole her only love. With the help of famed courtesan Jenny Cadine she slowly destroys the lives of those who have scorned her.
A nobleman studying for the priesthood abandons his vocation in 18th Century France when he falls in love with a beautiful, but reluctant, courtesan.
The star courtesan is a sought-after title. These two women will do anything to get it.
Told mostly in flashbacks, the film tells the story of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman, one of the greatest and probably most famous courtesans of the twentieth century. While not showing her childhood, first marriage to Winston Churchill's son, or most of her affairs, we do get to see her affair and eventual marriage to Broadway producer Leland Hayward, and then her marriage to politician Averell Harriman, with whom she had an affair while both were married to others in World War II. We also see her as ambassador to France during her last years, and her death in 1997. While some (mostly her lovers) adored her, others (mostly her son and her husbands' children) hated her.
In the 16th century, when Prince Salim falls in love with a beautiful courtesan named Anarkali, Emperor Akbar's disapproval leads to a battle between father and son.
A period drama set in the year 1877 that narrates the love story of a revolutionary tawaif.
Amiran is sold to a brothel by a corrupt cop after her father testifies against him. Many years later, she grows up to be an accomplished poetess and a renowned courtesan, Umrao Jaan.