Why
is Spain's Queen Juana known as Juana the Mad? Juana
L a 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
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