I the Worst of all was screened in Argentina and appeared in theaters in the year of 1990. It was directed by María Luisa Bemberg who was a feminist, because she was not fulfilled with her life as a submissive wife with four children, she got a divorce and found her way as a director at the age of 48, founding GEA Cinematográfica, her own film firm. The screenplay of the film was adapted by Antonio Larreta and Bemberg from Octavio Paz’s biography of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; even tough is very accurate to history in certain things, there are some others that are imprecise in order to accomplish the goal of the film in our cotemporary society.
This film is set in the years between 1680 and 1695 in New Spain (Mexico), the social and political climate at this time was one ruled by kings and the church; and the church had more power than any other authority. It was a world entirely ruled by men, and men that were most of the time misogynic; in other words, the seventeenth century was one that censored and oppressed women, since the opinion of society standards, along with the politic power was monopolized by clergy men.
This paper thinks the movie will make its case thru symbolism and emotional appeal. The first one this paper states with words of the director: “I wanted Juana’s cell to be like a round prison, as if it were the equivalent of her own head, like a labyrinth that surrounds her with books, a kind of half-jail, half-refuge.” (Contemporary Cinema of Latin America, 2003, 127). As for the emotional appeal this paper says so because of the relationship between Sor Juana and María Luisa, bet even more because of the repression of intellectual development.
My references of Argentinean cinema are really poor, since the only movie I’ve seen from this country was “The son of the Bride” in 2001 directed by Juan José Campanella. Certainly it was one of the best movies I have seen; thus, I expect to see a great film as well. I’m looking forward for this film, since Argentineans are really ideological people.
The title is related to what Sor Juana felt after she was forced to decline to her readings and writing, to leave back all she was to be reborn in a new prototype of the submissive nun that can’t think and does everything she is told by imposition of the church men. In her reborn, she makes a purification act in which she refers to herself as the worst of all; the title is the state she is in after she is been rolled, in words of the director her sate as a “broken woman.”
The main idea of the film “focuses on the misogyny of the seventeenth-century ecclesiastical society and Sor Juana’s defiance of the Catholic Church, to condemn the transhistorical themes of religious hypocrisy and the repression of woman and to make a point about the need to promote woman’s place in culture. In addition, the cinematography and art direction follow aesthetic in order to make connections between inquisitorial New Spain and militaristic, dictatorial, and patriarchal societies, so characteristic of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s.” (Contemporary Cinema of Latin America, 2003, 124). “Bemberg declared that the aim of her films is to change people’s attitudes. In her words: “My goal, which is very ambitious, is to always move spectators, and, if possible, change them so that they will leave the cinema transformed” (Trelles Plazaola, 1991, 113; my translation). The aim of this film, then, is to call upon audiences to recognize and fight against misogyny and totalitarianism, and thus defend woman’s rights to have a central position within culture” (Contemporary Cinema of Latin America, 2003, 133).
This film is set in the years between 1680 and 1695 in New Spain (Mexico), the social and political climate at this time was one ruled by kings and the church; and the church had more power than any other authority. It was a world entirely ruled by men, and men that were most of the time misogynic; in other words, the seventeenth century was one that censored and oppressed women, since the opinion of society standards, along with the politic power was monopolized by clergy men.
This paper thinks the movie will make its case thru symbolism and emotional appeal. The first one this paper states with words of the director: “I wanted Juana’s cell to be like a round prison, as if it were the equivalent of her own head, like a labyrinth that surrounds her with books, a kind of half-jail, half-refuge.” (Contemporary Cinema of Latin America, 2003, 127). As for the emotional appeal this paper says so because of the relationship between Sor Juana and María Luisa, bet even more because of the repression of intellectual development.
My references of Argentinean cinema are really poor, since the only movie I’ve seen from this country was “The son of the Bride” in 2001 directed by Juan José Campanella. Certainly it was one of the best movies I have seen; thus, I expect to see a great film as well. I’m looking forward for this film, since Argentineans are really ideological people.
The title is related to what Sor Juana felt after she was forced to decline to her readings and writing, to leave back all she was to be reborn in a new prototype of the submissive nun that can’t think and does everything she is told by imposition of the church men. In her reborn, she makes a purification act in which she refers to herself as the worst of all; the title is the state she is in after she is been rolled, in words of the director her sate as a “broken woman.”
The main idea of the film “focuses on the misogyny of the seventeenth-century ecclesiastical society and Sor Juana’s defiance of the Catholic Church, to condemn the transhistorical themes of religious hypocrisy and the repression of woman and to make a point about the need to promote woman’s place in culture. In addition, the cinematography and art direction follow aesthetic in order to make connections between inquisitorial New Spain and militaristic, dictatorial, and patriarchal societies, so characteristic of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s.” (Contemporary Cinema of Latin America, 2003, 124). “Bemberg declared that the aim of her films is to change people’s attitudes. In her words: “My goal, which is very ambitious, is to always move spectators, and, if possible, change them so that they will leave the cinema transformed” (Trelles Plazaola, 1991, 113; my translation). The aim of this film, then, is to call upon audiences to recognize and fight against misogyny and totalitarianism, and thus defend woman’s rights to have a central position within culture” (Contemporary Cinema of Latin America, 2003, 133).
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