courtesan

And Demy’s “Lola” was inspired not just by the character made immortal by Marlene Dietrich in “The Blue Angel” but also by the courtesan chronicled in Ophuls’s last completed picture, “ Lola Montès.”

With every one of his 18 viewings of “Mughal-e-Azam,” a hit 1960 musical about a forbidden romance between a prince and a courtesan, the young boy fell more in love.

Gin, a former courtesan who runs a local brothel, bides her time until she is able to negotiate with Toranaga an expansion of her business that would evolve the profession.

In a brothel in Kumamoto’s licensed quarter, Ichi finds herself under the wing of its highest-earning courtesan, or oiran, the impossibly elegant Shinonome.

A drawing of a partially nude courtesan, reportedly found in present-day Cairo, likely dates to the 10th to 12th centuries.