Te Amo, Psicópata

Mad Love or Juana la Loca is a Spanish film directed by Vicente Aranda starring Pilar Lopez de Ayala and Daniele Liotti. The plot is based on true events. It unfolds the unfortunate fate of Queen Joan of Castile who fell in love with her unfaithful husband Philip to the point of madness.

Going back to almost 60 years before, the young Joan is bound to marry a man she hasn’t met yet all for political reasons. The Archduke Philip of Hapsburg, a handsome young man awaits her arrival in Flanders as she was shipped off from the port of Ladero. The beginning is of gloom and anxiety, not knowing what she will be facing. But all goes bright when the two finally came face to face. Philip with all his handsomeness immediately demanded they get married as soon as possible, carries her off to bed and made love with her. As quick as that, this is when Joan’s extreme attachment to Philip started. But unfortunately, this extreme feeling drives Philip away. They bore children, who were of not much exposure in the film. Later he starts hunting women and it started with a maid. Eventually Joan finds out all along with tragic news of her mother’s death. This leaves her in so much despair. She then becomes Queen of Castile and returned home with Philip, but more unfortunate events follows leading Joan to be insanely jealous. She looses attention on her kingdom and political rivals jump in that opportunity to dethrone her. Fortunately, she keeps back on track but Phillip’s illness followed by his death drowned her too much. At the age of 28 she is then confined in a palace in Tordesillas as a mad woman for the rest of her life.

Pilar Lopez de Ayala’s portrayal of the protagonist mad Joan is convincing that she doesn’t need to overact just to show passion and mad love. With her acting she leaves audiences very affected and even goes mad along with her. There is no doubting about her winning the best actress in the Goya awards. She will make you hate and love her at the same time. Daniele Liotti as Philip the Handsome is very suitable for him. He also does good with his insensitivity and emotional detachment with Joan which is good to truly establish his being villain in the story. Also notable characters are Alvar the childhood love and Elvira the most loyal maid who were her guardians and Aixa the prostitute with Satanic spells who along with Philip makes Joan very anxious and mad.

Some symbols I observe were the opening of legs, which shows willingness and surrender to a man’s love. It is repeated which implies Joan is very willing to let Philip in though he did her wrong, and that her love for him is a forgiving and accepting love. Others include the breasts, a symbol of erotic passions for women. Narrations were very useful in establishing the story, setting and even characters. It wasn’t used to say the obvious but to say what is there to know about the scene.

I just dislike the very long scene at the beginning. Maybe it’s a director’s style of saying that it’s indeed very long travel but I find it very dragging. I think it’s better if some different scenes were shown instead of a static line of travellers. Overall it’s a good movie with my applauses on very effective acting. And I would always remember the line, “I hate everything that comes between your body and mine – even the air”, as spoken by Juana la Loca.