LA REINA LOCA REDEEMS THE REPUTATION OF A LIBERATED WOMAN IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Why is Spain’s Queen Juana known as Juana the Mad? La Reina Loca (retitled in the United States as Mad Love) seeks to answer the question. The film begins with a short scene of Queen Juana (played by Pilar López de Ayala), who in the year 1555 feels sorry for herself, as she has been imprisoned in a Spanish castle for nearly fifty years. The next scene is in 1496, when Castile’s reigning Queen Isabel (played by Susi Sánchez) tries to calm her nervous seventeen-year-old daughter Juana about her impending marriage with Archduke Philip of Flanders (Daniele Liotti), an important geopolitical move to maintain peace between the Hapsburg Empire and the growing power of Castile. (Isabel was, of course, then queen of Castile and Aragón; Fernando II was only king of Aragón.) Upon meeting eighteen-year-old Philip in Flanders, she is enthralled at first sight by his masculinity, and he quickly has the marriage blessed and carries Juana into his bedroom. From that point, Juana is obsessed with sexual desire for him. She bears him children, but he is sexually active with others, as before, and she so shocks the court with jealous antics that she is called “loca” (the Spanish word for “crazy”) behind her back. Yet she persists in wanting his body as if she were a twenty-first century liberated woman. In 1500, Queen Isabel dies; Juana succeeds to the throne of Castile, so Philip is her consort. (Actually, the succession is far more complicated, but director Vicente Aranda takes literary license.) They go to Castile to take up their positions, but jealousy continues to haunt her, this time in the person of Aixa (played by Manuela Arcuri), a daughter of a Moorish king who has taken the Spanish name Beatrix. Juana’s jealous rages continue, eclipsing her duties as sovereign. Meanwhile, Aixa gives syphilis to Philip, a fact that is covered up until he lies on his deathbed with chancres. Accordingly, Philip’s principal aide De Vere (played by Giuliano Gemma) plots to have Juana declared insane so that the throne can pass to Philip before his death, thus enabling the Habsburgs to control Castile without a shot. When the Castilian nobles realize that their independence is at stake, they meet with Juana to stop the plot. But she is not like England’s Elizabeth, who put politics above personal concerns; Juana refuses to listen to their plea and instead is in the middle of trying to prove who is the author of an adulterous letter. The Castilian nobles then realize that Juana is indeed unfit to govern and agree to her arrest. However, before she is incarcerated, Philip collapses and continues to fail in health while Juana hopes that he will recover. After he dies at the age of twenty-eight, she is arrested. The final scene reverts to 1555, when she is imprisoned in a castle, admiring a picture of her only love. We are left with the distinct impression that Juana was neurotically obsessed by love but not insane by current standards, so the film serves to redeems her reputation. Titles at the end are absent, as a Spanish film does not need to educate its own public on the history of the country, namely, that their son Charles became King of Castile when he reached maturity in 1516, though court intrigue continued until then, as Fernando II still was king of Aragón. In 1519, Charles was crowned the Holy Roman Emperor, uniting much of Europe under a single authority. MH