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Mad Love

2001, Movie, R, 117 mins

Mad Love: Review

MAD LOVE | JUANA LA LOCA | MADNESS OF LOVE, THE
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Nominated for 12 Goya Awards in its native Spain, Vicente Aranda's feminist biography chronicles the long life and short reign of Queen Juana of Castile (1479-1555), whom history remembers as Joan the Mad. 1496: Princess Joan (Pilar Lopez de Ayala), 17, daughter of King Ferdinand (Hector Colome) and Queen Isabella of Castile (Susy Sanchez), Christopher Columbus' patron, is sent to Flanders to make a political marriage to Hapsburg heir Philip the Fair (Daniele Liotti) of Burgundy. She leaves behind her beloved mother and siblings, as well as childhood sweetheart Alvaro de Estuniga (Eloy Azorin), now an officer in the Spanish army. Juana blossoms in the hedonistic Brussels court, a dramatic change from the devoutly Catholic austerity that dominated her upbringing. Philip's erotic ministrations transform her from a trembling virgin to an ardent sensualist, whose ardor he initially finds delightful. But Juana's newly awakened passion occasions gossip — the Flemish aristocrats regard her as coarse and gauche — and becomes a liability when Philip starts exercising his royal prerogative to take mistresses. Far from home and almost always pregnant or nursing — Juana bore six children in less than ten years — the princess refuses to accept her husband's infidelities gracefully. She succumbs to jealous rages, ignoring matters of state, selecting the noblewomen who attend her for their plainness and turning on them violently when she suspects Philip of further philandering. Following the successive deaths of brother, elder sister and mother, Juana becomes Queen of Castile and returns to Spain, where Philip attempts to distance himself from his volatile wife and takes a new mistress, opportunistic Moorish belly dancer Aixa (Manuela Arcuri), secretly installing her among Juana's ladies in waiting. Acting on the advice of his politically ambitious courtiers, Philip conspires with Juana's deposed father to have her declared mad. Writer-director Aranda's film generally sticks close to historical fact, diverging from conventional wisdom in suggesting that Juana may have been less mad than desperate. He proposes that a purely political ploy to strip her of her power was abetted by her bold defiance of social mores that demanded women — even queens — submit to their husbands and express sexual desire only within rigidly proscribed boundaries. Lavishly costumed and shot largely on location, the film benefits from a phenomenal central performance by Lopez de Ayala, previously best-known for her work on Spanish television; she won the 2001 Goya Award for Best Actress. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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