Customer Reviews

Mad Love [VHS]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Note: Castillian Spanish with English and French subtitles.

Based on historical accounts, director Vincent Aranda has created a lavish, sumptuous film set in 16th century Flandes, Spain. Princess Juana de Castilla (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) as come to fulfill her aristocratic obligation in an arranged marriage with Archduke Felipe of Austria (Daniele Liotti).

What begins as a great romance quickly degenerates into a very sad and depressing tale of infidelity on the part of Felipe and obsessive compulsive paranoia displayed by the frantic Juana. Juana's obsession with her husbands affairs escalate behaviors that are soon the main subject of gossip for the aristocracy and the labeling of the desperate Juana as "Joan the Mad."

When Juana's Mother and older brothers' die unexpectedly she now becomes heir to the throne of Spain. Will she reign as Queen, or will Felipe succeed in having her proclaimed mad by the Spanish court and put away?

Fine performances all around by this all Spanish cast, especially by the two main characters; Pilar Lopez de Ayala and Daniele Liotti. Also in a small but memorable role is the seductive beauty Manuela Arcuri as the Moorish princess Aixa-Beatriz.

RECOMMENDED for anyone who enjoys a well-directed, historical film. Aranda fills this film with accurate details and with an interesting contemporary and feminist twist. His interest in forlorn love is at its best here, utilizing one of the lesser-known, but significant personages (among those in the U.S.,) as a tour-de-force vehicle into the narrow-minded, fickle, and antiquated Spanish 15-th century concept of women.
Though Aranda is notorious for explicit sexual portrayals, the ones in this film are not excessive nor senseless. Everything seems to have its place, and is quite believeable. FIVE STARS!!!

I rented this film with two friends on a whim, for lack of anything better looking at Blockbuster. As soon as the opening shot panned out we were hooked. The plot was stunning, the costumes rich and beautiful. The cinematography was excellent and the cast could not be beat. This was not a movie where sex was thrown in to hook some otherwise uninterested viewers, it was necessary to the plot and was handled appropriatly. Enough steam was in the sex to display the passion but it was tasteful and honest and the characteres remained themselves in the sack. Overall this movie was gorgeous and stunning, and it isn't often I tell all my friends about how great a film was. I've told everyone about Mad Love since I saw it a week ago.

Juana La Loca and her obsessive love for her husband Price Phillip is one of history's more fascinating chapters. Juana apparently refused to be separated from her husband's dead body. She was eventually imprisoned as mad, although it's unclear whether she was simply extremely passionate (...), somewhat neurotic, or actually truly mentally ill.
Director Vincente Aranda opts for the first theory. Juana (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) is tremulous and doe-eyed -- when she meets her fiance Prince Philip (Daniele Lioti) the two are so overcome with passion they demand to be married on the spot. Philip then carries Juana off to the bedroom, and from then on (according to the movie) Juana is a slave to her rakish husband. She wants to have sex constantly. Of course Philip's a jerk, and loses interest, and Juana goes mad.
There is really only one way to make a kind of movie like this, and that's as an unabashedly enjoyable bodice ripper. The dvd headliners seem to play up this aspect: "Sex so hot the ladies in waiting eavesdrop!" Unfortunately, Aranda is actually quite prudish. He seems to think that this movie is really an impassioned feminist film about how passionate women are punished. Perhaps for this reason, we never actually see Juana and Philip have sex. Thus, Juana's sexual obsession is less palpable for the viewer. The movie also pays some lip service to the political machinations surrounding Juana. Ultimatley, Mad Love loses steam. Part of the problem is the casting of Lioti -- he looks like Fabio, but really cant act. And Philip is such a murkily written character -- is he simply a cad? A Machiavellian monarch? Like many historical dramas the movie is shot in long, uninterrupted takes and a rather still camera. It is never sunny, and no one ever smiles it seems.
It's not bad for a film to play fast and loose with history. Juana la Loca's story is ambiguous enough that it can afford some modern revisionism. But for a film that wants to be a bodice ripper, a compelling costume drama, and a feminist statement, ultimately the movie ends up being none of these things. A disappointment.

Juana De Loca, or Mad Love, is one of those movies that you end up watching and become released into and willingly lost in. this is how powerfull movies all are. this movie has so much passion in it i could not help but come to BECOME TOUCHED myself, brought to passions mighty edge. this movie is very captivating its too easy to fall in love with the look of the characters alone, let alone the beautifull sets, and scenery. this is to say nothing about the Acting, because it was flawless! every character worked perfect, you forget your watching a movie. you know those movies where the actors cannot carry the part or even worse arent right for a part and cannot even act? this is not one of those movies!

it was majestic, inspiring and brimming with beauty.

so much passion, if i could use one word to describe it, would have to be passionate.. but then i would go on and change my mind again later,then back again driven, just as this film has the ability to move the viewer backwards and forwards towards all its parts of perfection in every detail - never to be forgotten. 5 stars PERIOD

A costume drama masquerading as an art-house sexual intrigue, MAD LOVE is far more about the trials of the human heart than it is about the temptations of the human flesh.

Queen Isabella of Spain arranges the marriage of her daughter, Joan, to Philip -- a romance novel covermodel complete with the long hair and bulging biceps if there ever was one -- a wealthy nobleman. Sexually awakened by Philip's hunger, Joan finds emotional contentment in loving her husband, bearing his children, and birthing heirs to her inevitable kingdom. However, after Philip's wandering eye is discovered, Joan edges further and further into acts of desperation to prove that the love she so long believed in was more than a facade.

Wonderfully photographed and evenly paced, LOVE moves briskly toward its inevitably grim climax, one perhaps not tidy enough for viewers all too sensitived to filmdom's increasing fascination with "alternate endings" and "living happily ever after." Arguably, fiction would've postulated a far more dramatic resolution to such an expansive tale of betrayal, but history teaches that perhaps the facts of the matter -- that perhaps the queen never finds happiness and that, perhaps, there are no answers in death -- are still the best representation.

As the ever slipping into obsession Queen Joan, Pilar Lopez De Ayala is a remarkable discovery. She tiptoes deftly between every notch on the emotional scale -- ecstacy, frenzy, compulsion, bitterness -- with accomplished ease.

However, the film's packaging and advertising would lead one to the conclusion that MAD LOVE is a bodice ripper of Academy Award proportions, and this is entirely misleading. While the film does boast several sexual encounters, they are -- with one notable exception -- relatively brief. That is not to say, however, that they are unimportant to the story; in fact, they are perhaps central to understanding Joan, Philip, and Beatriz's motivations and behaviors at a time when kings took consorts while queens were relegated to longing passions of the heart.

The official Spain entry for the Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film, MAD LOVE is quite the discovery.

Juana la Loca remains on of Spain's most interesting royal characters. Her life has been canonized by Opera, by books, and by previous films. None of these approaches the quality of this very fine period piece as directed by Vicente Aranda. Whether or not the young daughter of Queen Isabella travelled her inherited genes of 'madness' when she goes to Flanders to marry Phillip of Austria is a matter of interpretation to this day. If the delirious, blind passion for her husband and the accompanying jealousy and rage induced by Phillip's infidelities is categorized as 'madness', then mad she was. Aranda presents both sides of this marriage bed conflict in a way that we feel for both character's needs. As Juana, Pilar Lopez de Ayala is extraordinary in her grasp of the vulnerability of the Queen and Daniele Liotti not only acts his role as womanizer convincingly, he also has the appearance physicallly of a man women would desire even to the point of madness! The supporting cast is excellent, never teetering on caricature. The reconstruction of castles, costumes, and lighting make this film a visual delight. In every way this is a superb movie that embellishes everyone's knowledge of 16th Century Europe. Highly Recommended.

Personally, I think it's terribly unfortunate that Juana of Castile has been reduced to being either brainless or insane. Considering who her parents were, she must surely have had a highly complex up-bringing (as did, apparently, her mother before her). It wasn't as if she was just Juana Smith from down the block.

To my mind, something early on set the stage for her extreme behaviour later on. Her love for Philip looked idealistic, the type that seems to grow in very solitary people. And the way she locked onto him had IMO more to do with her desperate loneliness than anything else.

Now I might have thought otherwise if Philip had shown any redeeming characteristics - but he didn't. There was no reason whatsoever for him to be the life-long object of his wife's adoration. Of course, Juana's problems were immensely complicated by Flemish disdain for Spanish ways and by the political power-plays against her.

Anyway, Juana's suffering was brilliantly conveyed by Pilar Lopez de Ayala. Her feelings were so realistically reflected in her facial expressions that I felt quite sympathetic. Juana wasn't weak though. Pilar showed her to be willful, determined and very aware of her 'station'. And she was certainly loved by her people.

"Mad Love" truly is visually beautiful and affecting. It has a very Bronte-esque look and feel to it, which drew me in right away. I must admit though that the subject matter made me uncomfortable.

It does seem to jump over time periods and exclude obvious characters, but I think it's meant to be Juana's recollection of her feelings from 47 years earlier.

This is a wonderful and accurate account of the "mad" Queen of Castille, Juana, sister of Henry VIII's first wife Catherine of Aragon. This is a great lavish movie that keeps you hooked from start to finish. I recommend this if you love great entertaining historical pieces.

It is a pity that this movie has lost its essential title of "Juana la Loca" for "Mad Love"... it definitely detracts from the appeal of picking it up off the shelf. I saw the movie when it was released in Granada, Spain in Fall 2001. I have never forgotten it. It is an incredible, sweeping film and fascinating to watch. I'm not sure if it's subtitled or not, but regardless, it is a gorgeous and sexy film.

There seems to be so little on Juana's life in terms of English material, that this film provides an interesting glimpse into her life. Very, very good movie.