Juana la Loca
Tags: insanity, gothic, historical, flashback

Plot synopsis:
Tordesillas, 1554. Seventy four years old, Queen Joanna of Castile, called Juana La Loca (Joanna the Madwoman), is still mourning the loss of her husband who died a half century before. Joanna remembers with emotion the man she loved passionately, but who brought her ruin. She does not fear death, she says, because death would allow her to be reunited with her husband. Their story goes back almost 60 years.
In 1496, Joanna, the third child of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, is leaving Spain through the port of Laredo. She is headed to Flanders to marry the Archduke of Austria, Philip, nicknamed the Handsome, a man she has never laid eyes on. The marriage has been arranged for political purposes. Joanna's siblings and her mother, Queen Isabella, bid her farewell.
Once in Flanders, Joanna, young and inexperienced, is immediately smitten by her handsome fiancé. He is equally pleased with his beautiful bride and orders the marriage to take place at that very moment so they can consummate their marriage without any delay. Their union is initially a great success. The political alliance between their two countries has been consolidated and Joanna and Philip are very attracted to each other. With his good looks and bed manners, Philip completely captivates his wife. Their passionate love making soon produces results. Joanna has a daughter, followed shortly after by a son. She gives birth to her son in an emergency bathroom delivery without any assistance, cutting the umbilical cord afterwards with her teeth.
A combination of love, lust and emotional dependency make the passionate Joanna deeply attached to her husband. Her love becomes consuming, but the intensity of her passion turns Philip away. He is a restless man who finds entertainment in going hunting and in the arms of other women. The deaths of Joanna's brother, the stillbirth of her brother's daughter, her older sister's death and her sister's son's death unexpectedly make her heir of the Castilian and Aragones crowns. However, she is not interested in government. Obsessed with her husband, Joanna surprises him in bed with a lover, who Joanna later successfully identifies as Ines de Brabante, one of the court ladies. In a fit of jealousy, Joanna cuts the long red hair of her rival. While Joanna despairs at her husband’s unfaithfulness, she receives further bad news. Her mother has died. Joanna thus becomes Queen of Castile and has to return to her kingdom. Her tantrums over her husband’s infidelities have made her start to become known as Joanna the Mad.
At the Castilian court in Burgos, the Queen is happily greeted by her subjects, but her marital life is still in turmoil. Philip is soon bewitched by the charms and spells of Aixa, a Moorish prostitute who uses her sexual attraction and black magic to secure Philip's favor. With this new lover, the King becomes noticeably indifferent toward his wife, which adds to her increasingly insane jealousy.
Against the background of this troubled marriage, there are two opposed political parties at court, one Flemish, the other Castilian. The conspiring Flemish usurpers are headed by Señor de Veyre, Philip's right-hand man. Their objective is to have Joanna declared insane and for Philip to take power away from her. Joanna has her own set of supporters, the loyal Castilian royalists, headed by the Admiral of Castile. The Admiral and the Queen's friend and confidant, Elvira, try unsuccessfully to rescue Juana from her marital obsessions.
However, it is not the government that is on the Queen's mind; she is fixated on retaining her husband’s love. To avoid any temptations at court, she hires only ugly-looking maids of honor to serve her, but in fact Aixa has been brought to court by Philip, passing as one of the court ladies under the name of Beatriz de Bobadilla. Unaware of this, the Queen relies on Beatriz to find a spell to help her retain her husband's love. Joanna is equally misguided in her attempt to regain Philip's attention by simulating a love affair with Captain Álvaro de Estúñiga, a close friend from her childhood. The Queen’s lack of control permits the manipulation of her enemies to have her declared incompetent to rule. The King, encouraged by Señor de Veyre, resolves to take the rule of the kingdom for himself and shove Joanna out of the way. He finds an unlikely ally in Joanna's own father, king Fernando, who has remarried and has no further interest in either the fate of his daughter or in the kingdom of Castile.
While her fate is decided at a court assembly, Joanna is able to successfully make her case, counting on the unquestionable support of her subjects. However, her powerful speech coincides with Philip falling gravely ill. Although she devotedly takes care of her husband, the doctors are unable to do anything for him. On his death bed, Philip apologizes to his wife for his past excesses. After the death of her husband Joanna, heavily pregnant, takes on a long journey to the south of the country to bury her husband. She does not go far. Forced to stop to give birth to a daughter, Joanna never reaches her destination. Although she retains her title as queen, at the age of 28 she is locked as a madwoman in the castle of Tordesillas for the rest of her long life.
Philip's body was laid to rest in a nearby monastery, which Joanna was allowed to visit from time to time.

Review: 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.
This is the historic tale with a politic fight behind , concerning a deep love story who transformed Juana, Queen of Spain, into Juana "The mad" in which Pilar Lopez De Ayala did a powerful interpretation of the nutty queen .
Juana is married off by her pious parents , the two famous Catholic kings : intelligent Fernando of Aragon (Héctor Colome) and sensible Isabella of Castille (Susi Sanchez) , to ally Spain , united by their marriage, to the Burgundian and other Habsburg heritage of archduke Maximilian and Maria's son Philip (Daniel Liotti) .
As in 1496, Juana De Castilla, daughter of the Catholic Kings, travels to Flandes to marry the Archduke Felipe De Austria, known as 'El Hermoso' or The Handsome .
Deaths in her family soon make Juana Isabella's heir , but Ferdinand suggests she inherited her grandmother's craziness and supports Philip's ambition to govern instead , which becomes the stakes of political maneuvering in the Cortes and then multiple drama is inevitable .
Juana "The mad"concerns a peculiar story of love , lies and jealousy with a political confrontation behind .
This interesting as well as intimate story is a passionate retelling and a touching drama , including strong sex scenes .
Vicente Aranda also writes the script along with Antonio Larreta based on a story by Manuel Tamayo and being filmed in his usual formal and stylistic scholarship , without leaving a trace the thought-provoking issues , in terms of dramatic and narrative excitement .
Other retelling about this known story based on the play by Manuel Tamayo Y Baus are the followings : A silent version (1909) by Ricardo Baños ; the Spanish classic ¨Locura De Amor¨(1948) by Juan De Orduña with Aurora Bautista as Doña Juana , Fernando Rey as Felipe El Hermoso , Sara Montiel as Aldara , Jorge Mistral as Capitán Don Alvar ; a comical rendition titled ¨Juana La Loca De Vez En Cuando¨ by Jose Ramon Larraz with Lola Flores as Reina Isabel I 'La Católica' , Beatriz Elorrieta as Infanta Doña Juana De Castilla , Jaime Morey as Felipe 'El Hermoso' , Manolo Gómez Bur as Cardenal Cisneros and Quique Camoiras as Fray Tomás de Torquemada ..
The movie should be seen chiefly for its main actress, the beautiful and talented Pilar López de Ayala.
It is highly doubtful that the real Juana became "mad" chiefly out of love for an unfaithful husband, who in this movie is not shown to be particularly interesting anyway.
And if the real Juana was anywhere near as beautiful as the actress who plays her, I suppose the real Philip would not have been such a mean husband to her.
Prior to seeing this film , the fact that it was in Spanish and in Spain(therefore no English sub-titles), gave me the worrying feeling that I would miss the main outline of the story.
The first the historical one tells of Juana, daughter of Isabel, Queen of Castille(spain)(one of the most important figures in history) who is arranged to be married to Philippe of Flanders, heir to the Holy Roman Empire, which consisted of Germany, Flanders and northern Italy.
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.
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..
There is no question that director Vicente Aranda has taken considerable liberty with generally accepted history, but despite this and a few flaws within the context of certain scenes, what we have is an excellent story, and one very well recounted and acted.It will come as absolutely no surprise for those who have seen this film to know that Pilar Lopez de Ayala (as Juana I) and Rosana Pastor (Elvira, Head of Queen´s Household) are nominated in the lead and supporting categories of the Spanish Goya Film Awards, and, despite having been ignored by the Golden Globes, this film should be in contention for Oscar Consideration as Spain´s representation for the "Best Foreign Film" of 2001.
Frankly, the performances just mentioned were so stunning, especially Pilar Lopez de Ayala, that I would consider her among nominees for Best Actress at the Oscars, not only given the absolutely pathetic list the Golden Globes presented in the Drama category, but simply because Pilar Lopez de Ayala DESERVES IT, much as did Fernanda Montenegro in the Brazilian masterpiece "Central Do Brazil" just a few years back.For the historians among the viewing public, my recommendation is to simply look the other way on the bit of revisionism on display, given that far greater crimes have been committed by Hollywood as regards same.
The story is excellent, the costumes & design, art direction, cinematography, and above all film editing are simply tops -- and film editing has been a GREAT problem in US films in recent times.
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.
Allegedly the "true story" of Juana de Castilla, the eldest daughter of the Catholic Queen Isabella (yes, the same who funded Columbus's expedition), the film charts the progress and degeneration of her morbid obsession with her husband, the Archduke Philip of Austria, known as "The Handsome" (and played in a rather unispired manner by Italian hunk Daniele Liotti, at his most buttery and beefy here).
Liotti looks positively bored and Pilar López de Ayala in the title role  though to be fair she may mature into a proper talent  just seems to be trying too hard, switching back and fourth from two-dimensional horny-looking to spoilt teenage hysterics all the way through.
*Juana la loca* is a film for sensitive people whose intellect has gone far than watching trashy actions and shallow soap operas.
This Spanish drama makes a viewer use his intellect, it's not an entertaining film - it is too deep and too emotional, and too well-played to be called *soap opera*.
Based on real events the film gives us the full description of those beautiful and at the same time sad pages of Spanish history.
She played so naturally no matter whom - an innocent young girl, a woman in love or a miserable queen driven into madness from jealousy towards her husband.
If you like overwrought historical dramas, not particularly good ones, I'd say this is the film to watch.
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.
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.
I happen to believe that using a narrator in a film with characters and dialogue, although sometimes justifiable, is many times a sign of script or directing weakness; usually, if both the screenplay and the director are good enough, conveying all the information should be possible (and would be more powerful) without a narrator explaining what's going on.The second thing that bothered me was the acting.
Liotti seemed lifeless, although I was told his voice was dubbed in Spanish, which usually lowers the power of a performance quite a bit (apparently, he originally delivered a lot of his dialogue in Italian).The third thing that bothered me was the film's (director's?) incapacity of explaining the roots and justification of Juana's mad love for Phillip.
Yes, I know it was a powerful combination of lust and emotional dependency, that Juana was a passionate woman and apparently Phillip was quite a fiery lover, but I never felt the characters' passion.The film focused too little on Juana's personality/character and the way the chemistry between her and Phillip developed.
The story, loosely based on the Spanish queen Juana de Castilla's life, is quite moving, maybe more for those who have experienced the kind of passion that Juana had for Phillip.
A woman so passionately in love with her man, so consumed by her love and so anguished by his philandering and growing lack of reciprocity to her love that she becomes obsessed with possesing him and forgets she is a queen and that her first duty is to her people.
I was just sorry to see such a passionate love story idea being presented in a bit of a lethargic manner..
Based on the stage play `La Locura de Amor' (Teatro del Principe, Madrid, January 12th 1855) by the dramatist Manuel Tamayo y Baus (1829-1898), Vicente Aranda's film `Juana la Loca' ran into several problems even before it appeared in public.
The story centres around Juana, eldest daughter of Isabel de Castilla and Fernando de Aragón, historically known as `Los Reyes Católicos', whose youngest sister, Catalina (Catherine of Aragón) was to end up headless following her marriage to Henry VIII, king of England, and mother of Carlos who was to be Carlos I of Spain and V of Germany.
Unfortunately the future Queen Juana lost her head by falling so hopelessly in love with this goodly hunk of man (played here rather insipidly by Daniele Liotti), that she went crazy as he was always off on such masculine adventures in the arms of other women.
Was the real historical character also left-handed?Vicente Aranda has never reached me as one of our great directors: if `Tiempo de Silencio' (1986) (qv) is his best film, followed by `La Pasión Turca' (1994), in neither case I found the film totally satisfying in terms of doing justice to the novels on which they are based - by Luis Martín-Santos and Antonio Gala, respectively -, and others of his films like `Celos' or the `Capitán Sánchez' TV series, just simply left me unimpressed.Added to that, José Nieto, one of Spain's most accomplished film and television composers, seemed to be rather uninspired for `Juana la Loca'.
a film of costumes and invitation to discover the real story of Juana.
good intentions, a lot of colors and large oasis of ambiguity, influences of soap opera and few scenes who escapes from the sketch status of film.
not profound, far to be original, but interesting for atmosphere recreation, for the performance of Giuliano Gemma , for hard work to convince of Pilar de Ayala and for the air of old rose.
Juana de Loco is a film that questions if love above duty is more natural for a woman than a man.
The film has a rich and sensuous look in staging of 15th century Spanish courtlife, but beyond that, its revisionist take on the historical record is questionable.
Juana on the other hand, plays the game according to the rules for women and gets incarcerated for the remainder of her life.
On the one hand, the film suggests that Juana's "madness" was that she was just a woman ahead of her time.
"Mad Love", as the DVD I rented was entitled, tells the story of Juana or Joan, Queen of Castile Espana (circa early 1500's), who inherited the monarchy at a young age and spent most of the rest of her life in exile from the throne due to madness.
"Mad Love" muddles fact with fiction and history with histrionics as it portrays Joan as a woman so obsessed with her husband and so jealous of his wanton ways as to make her an impotent ruler.
Given subtitles and the fact that most have never heard of Joan, "Mad Love" is not likely to find much of an audience in the U.S.
Vicente Aranda has made a terrible historical movie.
story of a woman like many others, captive of her jealousy, it is one of films who not gives more than small references about a generous subject..
In this movie I like the acting of "Pilar López de Ayala" she was awesome .
Focus of the movie is on the Juana Mad Love.
Start of the film marriage of king and queen.
So, Juana love her husband with full of heart till the end of the movie.
First of all I have to say Pilar Lopez de Ayala is playing really GREAT!
That is the true passion!The male character is in my opinion very well chosen, the actor is the embodiment of the Spanish "hot" lover and makes her "madness" seem plausible!
The only thing I do not particularly enjoy about this movie is: -the intermezzos with another voice making it look like a documentary -the image of the old woman saying rather improper things (let's face it it doesn't sound good unless from the young and beautiful actors) -the ending...
And while the fair-minded viewer will find much to recommend it, "__Juana la loca__" (English title "Mad Love") is probably (and understandably) best appreciated by those who know the history, culture and language inspiring it.
Into the bargain "__Juana la loca__" is gorgeously filmed, and well acted, especially considering themes and situations essential to the story that might seem like pure melodrama if less well executed.
this movie is about the queen of spain, a woman who is deeply in love with her husband, but her love is ignored.
in the end, the queen's love for her husband is what did her in and caused her to be declared crazy by parliament and sent away to jail for the rest of her life.
i think that this is a story that proves just how powerful love is, and how lonely and desperate a person can become without it.
Juana la Loca is the story of a 15th century young Spanish monarch, Juana.
As Juana, Pilar Lopez de Ayala is beautiful, feisty, and full of passion for her husband bordering on madness.
When he turns to rampant womanizing, Juana's heart is broken, and she begins to obsess on her husband, sacrificing her duties as ruler of the kingdom.
This is a very good movie, and Lopez de Ayala plays the role very well.
No one could ever play a young queen as well Cate Blanchett did in Elizabeth;  but Pilar Lopez de Ayala is totally convincing as Juana la Loca -- Joan the Mad..
Seeing a movie with such drama, excitement and great acting is very rare.
Although the viewer might not like the cruelty of the king in matters of being faithful, the movie gives a realistic idea of what life has been like in the 15th century in Spain..
Great Pilar Lopez de Ayala performance.
Pilar Lopez de Ayala deserves all prizes in the world for her role as Juana de Castilla.
Vicente Aranda and his collaborators took liberties when they decided to base their film on the tragic figure of Juana, a Spanish princess, the daughter of the Catholic Kings of Spain.
Historically this film is incorrect as it's derailed by the sexual context Mr. Aranda gave the movie.When Juana is sent to Flandes to marry Phillip, little prepared the young and sheltered woman to find a man who was, above all, a womanizer and a libertine, who took his pleasure wherever he could find.
In fact, Phillip's nickname was "the handsome", something that comes across in the way this vain man acts throughout his life.Pilar Lopez Ayala, who plays the leading role, shows some passionate moments in the way she portraits the tragic Juana.
This is not just the historical tale of two royals forced into a marriage for political reasons, it is also the story of a husband and wife with all the failings and successes a marriage can bring.Juana the daughter of the great Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella is sent to Flanders to marry the dashing Philip, known through out the word as Philip the Handsome.
It's the story of a jealous, clingy wife madly and deeply in love with her philandering bored husband who is using her as a pawn to get what he wants.
I watched the movie in Spanish and it was amazing, a second time I watched it with subtitles and can say I understood little more, it is a film that transcends language.
Think of the many monarchs with sexual and emotional hang ups -- Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth and Essex, Othello who, like the daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand here, loved not wisely but too well.
Philip brings his advisers with him and they suggest that the queen is getting a little too jealous over Philip's peccadilloes and that maybe she's mad and Philip should take over and become ruler of Spain in her place.
She's more angry and anxious about Philip's infidelity than anything else.Pilar Lopez de Ayala is Joan, the principal figure, and she's convincing as a queen.
But, this may be one you haven't heard of.It concerns Juana, daughter of Isabel, Queen of Castille, who is arranged to be married to Philippe of Flanders.