Yo, la peor de todas

Juana Ines de la Cruz was a woman ahead of her times. She had everything going against her; she was a woman, she had intelligence, and she intimidated the people around her. Everything conspired to make her a target for the higher ups in the Catholic Church in Mexico. The Archbishop wanted to silence her at all costs.

These were the times when the so called Holy Inquisition was an instrument of the Church to get rid of anyone considered heretic, or who would question the dogma. It was a convenient way to get rid of the enemies, as the Catholic Church had such power that no one dared to challenge it.

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz wrote some of the best poetry known in the Spanish literature. Her work has survived because of the strength and beauty of her work. Sor Juana was befriended by the Spanish Viceroy and his wife. The virreina, in particular, saw in Juana a kindred spirit. Their relationship had shades of lesbianism, although only a chaste kiss is exchanged between them. When the Medinacellis are recalled home, Sor Juana is left at the mercy of the evil Archbishop who is bent in destroying her. Sor Juana Ines succumbs to the pest that took thousands in her country without being recognized in life for all she gave the world.

Maria Luisa Bemberg, a feminist film maker, puts her stamp in this story by bringing together the influential virreina and Sor Juana, a combination of two strong women who lived during a period of uncertainty in Spain and her colonies in the new world.

Asumpta Serna has some good moments as Juana Ines de la Cruz. Dominique Sanda is also effective playing opposite Ms. Serna as the virreina. Hector Alterio, Lautaro Murua, and the rest of the cast do a good job supporting the principal players. Cecilia Roth's dubbed the voice for Ms. Sanda.

Felix Monti's dark cinematography serves the film well. The film was photographed in a studio, and at times, it looks as though it is a theater set. Ms. Bemberg directed with a sure hand and got a lot out of her cast and crew.

The movie is well made, although not much money seems to have been spent on sets! It sticks fairly closely to the basic historical data, but a quick read up on Sor Juana in the Encyclopedia Brittanica might help many viewers.

Now to the rating issue. There is no good reason why this movie should be restricted to those over 18 by Amazon and other online merchants. There is no overt nudity or genital sex. There is a fairly chaste kiss between women. I suppose the violent scenes of nuns whipping themsleves in a penitential exercise might be offensive to some, but self-flagellation was indeed a part of Catholic monastic life until well into the 20th century, and the scene is not presented in any prurient way. If this amounts to a need to ban the movie for young people, then the Bible also would need to be banned. It has far more sex, nudity, and violence.

The writers who object to the "Lesbian passion" line on the box do have a point. Anyone buying this for erotic arousal would be profoundly mislead.

There is, however, a real lesbian aspect to this film. Sor Juana is clearly a "woman identified woman." She achieves her greatest triumphs while in the nurturing and all-female world of the Convent; her relationship with the Vicereine is the most heated in the film; and the destruction of her writing comes from the intrusion of the exclusively male world of the church hierarchy and the inquistion. Most importantly, her writing reflects an explicit feminist critique of women's oppression.

Just as one does not need to have genital sex in order to be a "heterosexual," neither does one need genital sex in order to be part of the lesbian continuum. Sor Juana is indeed part of the that continuum.

This is one of the few times in cinematic history where so much of the Spanisn Inquisition was explained for the full detail of what it entailed. I learned more about the politics of that time through this film than in my history classes. The connection Spain had with the 'new world' was stronger than any Britain had with her 'new world'.

If you have a passion for history, a passion for what shaped the way the Catholic church now runs its show (in perspective with its history), then this movie is a must see.

The acting, the writing, the production is second to none.

I first saw this film in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1992 at the Edinburgh Film Festival... I've since looked for it elsewhere unsuccessfully...

Don't be fooled by the misleading tagline. This is a historical drama. Nothing more. I suspect the tagline was written to try and get more men into the movie, but besides a peck, love letters and shy glances, there isn't much lesbian action in this movie. It is not for people with some sort of lesbo-nun fetish.

That being said, the film should be appreciated as a historical drama. Assumpta Serna does a wonderful job of playing the beautiful, "passionate, ironical" and intelligent Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. As far as I can tell based on my preliminary research, the film is historically accurate, with a few artistic liberties. The film is a film of dialogue - besides some brief scenes of flogging, and sickness in the convent, this is a film mostly about intelligent dialogue, as it should be due to its subject matter. The themes of feminism and the church are well explored and is a good look into the lives of women during the Inquisition of Colonial times.

Assumpta Serna is somewhat of a celebrity nun in 17th century Mexico ... she writes plays and poetry and studies science. She's made an enemy of the new Archbishop (Lautaro Murúa), who's idea of Catholicism is more in line with the Spanish Inquisition currently flourishing back in Spain. He tries to bring Serna back in line with his way of thinking, but she is protected by the King's representative Héctor Alterio and his scholarly wife Dominique Sanda. Serna's extremely close and intimate relationship with Sanda does her in.

A really striking and thoughtful Argentinian film about the real Juana Inés de la Cruz who was a talented artist and a thinker far ahead of her time. It's a very talky film, but there's a lot of thoughtful discussion of the nature of religion and women's roles as thinkers.

It's also a very dark film with a sadly realistic ending.