Veronica Ramirez

Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz: Playwright, Poet, Nun and Movie Star

As I began to prepare for my second research post, I kept thinking about Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz as a topic even after the completion of my first research post “Before Feminism: Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.” The majority of the sources I used for my first research post not only described Sor Juana’s influence during her time period but also stated that her influence is alive and strong even today. Several of those sources also pointed to the movie Yo, la peor de Todas or I, the Worst of All by director Maria Luisa Bemberg (1990).  I decided to view the movie to try to understand how Sor Juana would be represented to modern viewers.

During my first research post I had reported on the possible lesbian undercurrent in some of Sor Juana’s works, and was surprised that it was addressed in the movie. Actually, it was addressed even before I hit play, since the first thing I saw for “I, the Worst of All,” was the movie blurb on the front of the movie, it read “Lesbian Passion Seething Behind Convent Walls...Engrossing, Enriching, & Elegant” from the Boston Globe.  This allegation is explored but it is done tastefully and with enough ambiguity that in no way pushes the audience one way or the other. La Virreina (Vicereine-the Viceroy’s wife) is frequently in Sor Juana’s cell and they are frequently laughing and enjoying each other’s company. The places where there is some possible sensuality in these encounters, is always undercut by the idea of womanhood or friendship.

The first time it is presented, the Virreina is short of breath, and asks Sor Juana to undo her bodice and as Sor Juana starts to undo her bodice, the tension is cut by Sor Juana noticing that La Virreina is pregnant. Sor Juana seems confused by her pregnancy and states "I don’t understand motherhood." The next time there are signs of intimacy is when Sor Juana and La Virreina share a kiss, but once again the lines are blurred because La Virreina is saying goodbye to her dear friend and is going back to Spain. La Vicerina orders Sor Juana to remove her veil and states, “This Juana is mine... Only mine,” and caresses her hair and they share a soft kiss on the mouth. Everything was very cleverly presented and nothing like what I expected from the sensational blurb on the movie cover. Susan E. Ramirez from De Paul University conducted a Film Review of I, The Worst of All and summarized the mood of the movie by describing that the Director used “languid and light music, soft and shadowy light, and crisp, terse, and direct dialogue to succinctly create a mood and impression of sensuality and eroticism befitting many of Sor Juana's most renowned poems” (Ramirez 1161).

Another aspect of the movie that was very interesting was how Bemberg compared the feeling of being in a convent to the feeling of being incarcerated. Bemberg did a great job of balancing both Sor Juana's additional freedoms from the other nuns but also her physical incarceration. When Sor Juana has conversations and interactions with other people, she has to speak in a room that has bars separating her from her audience. Maria Luisa Bemberg in her interview, said that she tried to make her “a kind of half-jail, half refuge” of Sor Juana’s cell at the convent. Bemberg also stated that Sor Juana was a “product of colonialism” (Bemberg 81). Bemberg explains that “the impact of colonialism is very palpable in the film—the power of the viceroys, their paternalism, and how very unprotected Sor Juana finds herself when the viceroys depart” and all this was portrayed in the movie with Sor Juana’s clashes with the Catholic Church. Since Bemberg talks about colonialism, you would expect that the Spanish and Mexican cultures would be clashing on the screen, but the convent could have been anywhere, since there was not a trace that this convent was in Mexico. Maria Luisa Bemberg states that she did this on purpose to show that “Sor Juana is more than Mexican, more than a Spanish colonial subject, more than Latin American, that the wings of her spirit transcend all borders” (Bemberg 81).

Sor Juana's relationship with the church was shown as it was, very complex, patriarchal, and antagonizing. The Archbishop tells Juana that "God didn’t create a woman to philosophize" and Sor Juana replies "Where is that written?” It is heartbreaking to see Sor Juana battle with her quest for knowledge and with her faith, especially when she loses the protection of the Viceroy and his wife. In one particular scene Sor Juana is confessing to her priest during a time of sickness. After taking her confession, the priest tells Sor Juana "The devil is subtle. The search for knowledge is just that. . . . A disguise."  After these scenes, Sor Juana goes through more profound confessions renunciations of worldly possessions. Sor Juana is asked to renounce books and literature and other "diabolical ideas", while  a parallel scene is flashed in and out, of the other nuns  outside in the rain flagellating themselves on their backs asking for mercy from god for the plague to stop the rain. At first I thought it was an odd choice, but then I realized Bemberg was trying to show the physical pain and torturing of the nuns in comparison to Sor Juana's own internal pain of having to renounce her personal possessions and her writing. This scene may have also been forecasting the complete devastation that the plague had on the people, the nuns, and ultimately Sor Juana.

I enjoyed watching the film I, the Worst of All, reading the film review, and understanding the director’s own view of the directing choices that address the different aspects of the film. As I was researching for this second research post, I found a list of almost ten movies that either portray Sor Juana’s life, documentaries about her, or movies in which she is a character in (please see IMD link below). Sor Juana’s intrigue, her work and her image have transcended more than 300 years and several types of art forms.  Susan Ramirez, in her film review, describes the complex and somewhat dark movie by crossing mediums just like Sor Juana does: “I, the Worst of All is like an epic poem that in measured scenes, its own form of lines in rhyme, evokes another dimension of Sor Juana and allows the viewer to contemplate her as a person, to search out her ambiguity, and to partake of her intense feelings and emotions. The flow of metered light, sound, and dialogue challenges us to rethink the irony, confusion, and complexity of the lives and times she symbolized (Ramirez 1162). To this I add—Sor Juana challenges us to rethink the “irony, confusion, and complexity” of all lives and time periods.

Bemberg, Luisa Maria. Interview with Zuzana M. Pick. Journal of Film and Video 44. ¾ (Fall 1992 and Winter 1993): 76-82. Print.

I, the Worst of All. Dir. Maria Luisa Bemberg.GEA Cinematografica, 1990. Film.

Ramirez, Susan E. Rev. of “I, the Worst of All” Directed by Luisa Marie Bemberg. American Historical Review. ( October 1992): 1161-1162. Print.

Titles of movies that portray Sor Juana or documentaries of Sor Juana: http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0033414/

Information on Movie: “I, the Worst of All”:

 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100990/