Juana la Loca

What starts out as a sumptuous setting, with intricate period pieces and soft light cinematography, is quickly tainted by a very poor script. True, Pilar López de Ayala does give an envigorating rendering of this misfortunate queen, but after the first scene, it's all the same shrillness, over and over again. Even though the movie takes place over 10 years, the roles don't mature, either outwardly or inwardly, and the result are wooden characterizations that don't give any depth (or generate interest, for that matter) to the roles. The result is an inane, one-dimensional film that could have easily resembled similar period pieces such as La reine Margot or Elizabeth. Instead, it wallows in its own misery.

I can't believe this film has such a low rating. Every time I see it in the video store, I think, "I wish I could erase my memory of it so I could see it again for the first time."

The viewer gets an intimate look at life as a female member of a royal family during the 16th century. Unable to control with whom she spends her life or make basic choices, Juana is confined in a woman's role, yet has sexual passion fit only for men in her time. And possibly still in ours. It is up to the viewer to decide is she is "mad" or simply craves intimacy.

An unpredicable, controversial, and beautifully filmed period film, don't pass this one up.

I haven't enjoyed many films from Spain, but "Juana La Loca" (curiously translated by the distributors as "Mad Love" instead of the more appropriate "Joan The Mad") now tops my list of Spanish language films. It may not be an accurate portrayal of historical events (it's pretty safe to say many liberties were taken in that regard), but it's still worth seeing. Think of it as a play loosely based on historical persons as opposed to a bio-pic presentation of their lives.

This is a big, handsome costume drama that evokes Renaissance Spain with gusto, although there's a certain movieness to the look of things: almost everyone is abnormally good looking and everyone's clothes are remarkably clean (Philip, Juana's betrothed, sports a physique that smacks of modern day gyms; it's doubtful that a monarch who doesn't lift a finger would be so chiseled). By contrast, "Shakespeare In Love" captured some of the grubbiness of life during the Renaissance.

The soundtrack is also a bit heavy-handed, with music that occasionally gets a bit obvious.

But overall, this movie attacks its subject matter with relish and intellect. Instead of obligatory sword fights and battle sequences, "Juana La Loca" opts for dialogue that oozes with machinations and intrigue, and a pace that keeps things moving along and the viewer interested.

I give it 7 on a scale of 10.

If you like overwrought historical dramas, not particularly good ones, I'd say this is the film to watch. We see Joan at the beginning as a young woman who is uncertain of being married for political reasons. After that, I'd say I'm at a lost as to what the hell this woman is doing or feeling. She is called mad several times in the movie over, even before she displays any sort of crazy behavior--so I'm likely to think it was just her fulfilling some prophecies. And when she does, that's the ONLY thing she does in the entire movie except deliver her own babies and spread her legs. Not that that is a bad thing. There is quite a bit of leg-spreading in this film--just little else to see after that. The camera cuts away to some monotonous meeting of parliament or if it lingers, the scene isn't particularly sensual or erotic--just boring and full of business talk.

Some have been saying that she was ahead of her time, being such a sexual woman. I didn't think so. Were she to be empowered by sex and not driven to erratic behavior, I'd say she was ahead of her time. Her husband--played by Daniele Lioti, whose two expressions are "I'm going to rape you" and "I'm going to beat you"--seems to be someone to run away from, not love with a fiery passion. The love scenes between this silly long-haired eye-candy and Joan actually made the audience laugh instead of sympathize. Nuh uh, Vicente Aranda, I don't think so.

Overall, I liked the costumes.

True story of "the mad queen of Castile" focuses on the innocent daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella contracted into marriage with the infamous Hapsburg heir of the Holy Roman Empire. Juana becomes so enamored of her young libertine husband that her jealously makes her emotionally unstable. Between the faithlessness of her husband and the treachery of her unscrupulous father King Ferdinand she is declared mad and forced into incarceration for most of her life. For a clearer understanding of the events leading to this, read Lawrence Schoonover's intriguing biographical novel "The Prisoner of Tordesillas." How ironic that Juana's younger sister Caterina (Katherine of Aragon) was also betrayed by a ruthless philandering husband (Henry VIII of England) and incarcerated unto death.