allegedly the true story of juana de castilla and the eldest daughter of the catholic queen isabella ( yes and the same who fund columbus expedition ) and the film chart the progress and degeneration of her morbid obsession with her husband and the archduke philip of austria and know a the handsome ( and play in a rather unispired manner by italian hunk daniele liotti and at his most buttery and beefy here ) . this be a groan inducingly familiar story of late 15th c. and early 16th c. intrigue and betrayal and bodice ripping . it drip destructive lust from start to finish . but while la reine margot succeed in make cruel sensuality and ruthless and cut throat intrigue entertain to watch and juana la loca just doesn not pull off . it just end up feel like a big budget soap opera and with below average and lazy or over keen act . liotti look positively bore and pilar lópez de ayala in the title role though to be fair she may mature into a proper talent just seem to be try too hard and switch back and fourth from two dimensional horny look to spoil teenage hysteric all the way through . some of the support cast be ok and with the exception of manuela arcuri and another italian pin up and voluptuous and beautiful but really no actress to speak of . i couldn not in fact bring myself to feel any concern towards any character and nor for that matter do i feel strongly in a negative way against any of the supposed villain . what a waste of a substantial film budget . this one and sadly and be just so rhetorical and deja vu and nodding to other film in the genre rather than to it source material history for inspiration . it seem to me that such a fascinating and complex historic era deserve a far superior film maker to evoke it .