Ferdinando: I did a lot of good. I was close to the people.
Priest: Well, Majesty, maybe you don't recall, but you beheaded a lot of people.
Ferdinando: What? It was four little heads...and I am King! They...traitors, Jacobins Republicans...they murdered the people with war, revolutions, Napoleons, terror and blood of their dead! And now they want to make me pay? As if I were the only one. Anyway, it was that Austrian. Carolina. I didn't want to marry her!
A very odd movie. And I mean ODD. It's kind of hard to explain how odd it is.
Ferdinand IV is King of Naples, and spends his time hunting, goofing around, and having inventive sex with his current mistress, the Princess of Medina. A really unlikeable guy, he's rude to everyone, crude, shirks his duties, and talks in the most annoying voice I've ever heard: "Being King is a pain in the ass. You know why? I had to fart and my feet hurt. The ceremonies never finish." Charming.
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| King Ferdinando. |
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| Portrait of the real Ferdinand IV of Naples (later Ferdinand I of the Two Siciles) |
His father, King Charles III of Spain, needs him to marry one of the Austrian Archduchesses in order to secure an alliance with Austria. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria is also keen on the idea, but her daughters keep dying of smallpox before they can marry him, much to his delight. He finally ends up marrying Maria Carolina against his wishes:
Ferdinando: She's rotten with smallpox!
Advisers [chasing Ferdinando]: It's not smallpox! They said she was slightly ill. The Ambassador mentioned a minor uneasiness.
Ferdinando: I'm King Ferdinando and I don't want to marry!
Advisers: For God's sake, stop it. Don't act like a fool! He's like a drunken Satan! Saint Gennaro!
Ferdinando: I don't give a f*** about war with Austria. I don't want that scab in my house! I won't marry her!
Advisers: He'll marry her.
The movie begins with Ferdinando as an old man. He is dying and reflecting on his youth, and recalling that he hated Carolina, though they had a great time in the sack. She was political, so his advisers steered him away from her and into the arms of another woman.
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| The Princess of Medina informs Carolina about Ferdinando's new mistress. |
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| Portrait of the real Maria Carolina. |
We see very little of the politics of Naples -they led interesting lives (she birthed 18 children, there was a war with France resulting in the family being exiled), but you wouldn't guess it from this film. Mostly we watch Ferdinando carouse and act like an idiot. The most interesting part was seeing shots of the Austrian court, and Empress Maria Theresa with her children (Marie Antoinette was Carolina's favorite sister). The movie would have been much better if it had been from Carolina's perspective rather than Ferdinando. As it is, it's a dud.
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| The Austrian court -Maria Theresa arguing with her elder daughter. |
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| Portrait of the real Maria Theresa of Austria. |
Also, a nitpicky issue, but Marie Antoinette says as one point to Maria Theresa, when Carolina falls ill before leaving to marry Ferdinando (mostly Carolina is just unhappy -she doesn't want to marry "honker nose" any more than he wants to marry her), "Mama, if she dies I don't want to marry the King of France," and Marie Antoinette is marring the Dauphin of France, not the King.
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| Marie Antoinette weeps when her sister Carolina faints. |
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