The Borgias 3.04 A Banquet of Chestnuts
May. 7th, 2013 08:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which the show manages to find an explanation for a notorious historical orgy that never occured to me, and also, consequences.
You know, I thought I had bravely resigned myself to the fact that Giulia got eased out/written out of the show, but you should have heard my squee when I realised that no, she hadn't. My reaction process went thusly: "Oh, we meet Alessandro Farnese in person? That's nice, good choice for a new character. (As Pope Paul III, he was, as per usual and how he got to be cardinal in the first place, nepotic as hell, but still one of the better ones, getting some overdue reforms going, plus he stars in one of the more famous Michelangelo anecdotes - Michelangelo had painted the papal master of ceremonies, who kept harassing him, in the hell section of The Last Judgment, the master of ceremonies complained to the Pope, and old Alessandro, now Paul III, said: "Well, if he had put you into purgatory, I would have course used all my power to save you. But I fear hell is beyond even the Pope.") "And the young actor looks like he could actually be Giulia's brother, good casting. But wait, he's good at maths? Wasn't that Giulia's thing? You know, show, you should have done more with that last season when she was still there. Giulia, I miss... GUILIA! HERE YOU ARE! YOU ARE STILL AROUND; AND STILL THE ONE WIHT THE MATH SKILLS!"
Or, to put it more quietly: just about the only thing I didn't enjoy re: Giulia in this episode was that the show seems to have completely dropped her friendship with Lucrezia, because while she couldn't be in two places at once, she'd have been the obvious person for Lucrezia to talk to about what was going on (with or without also confiding about the incest). But other than that. One thing I've always liked about the show that Giulia Farnese's role was never just looking decorative and sexy on a bed. In addition to the now dropped friendship with Lucrezia and the respect she has for Vannozza, she and Rodrigo actually talked to each other (more than sex related banter, I mean); he was interested in her opinions and never treated her as incapable of understanding political situations. By keeping her as a character now that she's no longer his mistress (and giving them scenes together), the show reaffirms that. It also gives us a unangsty brother and sister relationship just when Lucrezia and Cesare lost the ease in theirs due to the sexual turn; I liked what we saw of Giulia and Alessandro together, both the way he's unashamed to ask big sister for help with the horror of Vatican finances and the fact that Giulia later tells him not to come to the notorious banquet. She'll provide Rodrigo with blackmail leverage on the entire consistory, sure, but not on her little brother. I love a woman with autonomy and thinking, not unthinking loyalties.
The banquet in question - as narrated by Burkhardt - is one of the set pieces in just about every biography written about the Borgias, as the epitomy of Renaissance clerical decadence. Trust this show to come up with a plot use for it that's not viewer tiltilation. (We actually don't see much of female nudity, and it's mostly done via Burkhardt's reaction shots and a very few expert cuts.) Which includes a novel explanation for Burkhardt's presence at the event. But to go back a bit. First of all, Rodrigo recognizing Giulia's handwriting in the records her brother gives him: good continuity (and also emphasis that Rodrigo notices more about the women he's in a relationship with than how fabulous they are in bed). His reaction, mirroring his present post assassination attempts mind frame, is paranoid, but not so much that he doesn't listen or doesn't take what Giulia says in return seriously. He's not as vulnerable with her as towards Vannozza, but he does open up about his basic problem, and Giulia, being the practical woman she is, doesn't offer reassurances that surely some of the cardinals (other than her brother) won't stab him in the back (literally), or that God will look out for him etc., she comes up with a blackmail scheme. (Again, great continuity: this is how Vannozza, she and Lucrezia managed the cardinals last season.) To explain everyone's favourite Renaissance orgy as a set up and chronicling Burkhardt as the equivalent of a tape recorder is ingenious. (And as I said, I loved that Giulia, while coming up with this in the first place, also made sure her brother would not be present.) Of course, there is also karmic justice awaiting, and we finally get a pay off for that random thing at the start of season 2 where Rodrigo had sex with the Duchess of Gonzaga a couple of times, which makes it not quite as random in retrospect.
Meanwhile, among the young 'uns, and speaking of long term consequences: King Ferdinand, presumably remembering how the Borgias got the Sforza marriage annulled, is insisting on witnessed consummation. (Which for this particular marriage isn't historically true but period-wise actually is not an invention; as Rodrigo later says to Cesare, there is precedent.) Which he also gets some vicarious thrillls out. Lucrezia's "I will have blood for this" to her mother was actually the most interesting thing about this subplot for me, because in addition to not boding well for the current King of Naples, it makes me wonder whether the show will make her complicit in Alfonso's death. Which she wasn't, historically speaking, but then, the show has its own history, and it makes her act, not react for the end of her second marriage - hm. Can'd decide how I feel about this. Anyway, I could be completely off track there and it was just meant as foreshadowing that Lucrezia has plans re: the King of Naples.
I do appreciate we're not just back to business as usual with Lucrezia and Cesare, now with added sex, but that they're both shown very affected by what happened. It's an interesting storytelling choice to let Cesare be the one determined it will not happen again. But also a necessary balance, given that in the same episode Lucrezia gets a demonstration/reminder that being married means no autonomy over your own body, and if your husband isn't insisting, his family is. I am now curious what kind of character the show will make Charlotte (the French princess Cesare will historically marry); since both Rodrigo and King Louis have given Cesare freedom of choice (as long as it's a French alliance), her characterisation will be a comment on his as well.
You know, I thought I had bravely resigned myself to the fact that Giulia got eased out/written out of the show, but you should have heard my squee when I realised that no, she hadn't. My reaction process went thusly: "Oh, we meet Alessandro Farnese in person? That's nice, good choice for a new character. (As Pope Paul III, he was, as per usual and how he got to be cardinal in the first place, nepotic as hell, but still one of the better ones, getting some overdue reforms going, plus he stars in one of the more famous Michelangelo anecdotes - Michelangelo had painted the papal master of ceremonies, who kept harassing him, in the hell section of The Last Judgment, the master of ceremonies complained to the Pope, and old Alessandro, now Paul III, said: "Well, if he had put you into purgatory, I would have course used all my power to save you. But I fear hell is beyond even the Pope.") "And the young actor looks like he could actually be Giulia's brother, good casting. But wait, he's good at maths? Wasn't that Giulia's thing? You know, show, you should have done more with that last season when she was still there. Giulia, I miss... GUILIA! HERE YOU ARE! YOU ARE STILL AROUND; AND STILL THE ONE WIHT THE MATH SKILLS!"
Or, to put it more quietly: just about the only thing I didn't enjoy re: Giulia in this episode was that the show seems to have completely dropped her friendship with Lucrezia, because while she couldn't be in two places at once, she'd have been the obvious person for Lucrezia to talk to about what was going on (with or without also confiding about the incest). But other than that. One thing I've always liked about the show that Giulia Farnese's role was never just looking decorative and sexy on a bed. In addition to the now dropped friendship with Lucrezia and the respect she has for Vannozza, she and Rodrigo actually talked to each other (more than sex related banter, I mean); he was interested in her opinions and never treated her as incapable of understanding political situations. By keeping her as a character now that she's no longer his mistress (and giving them scenes together), the show reaffirms that. It also gives us a unangsty brother and sister relationship just when Lucrezia and Cesare lost the ease in theirs due to the sexual turn; I liked what we saw of Giulia and Alessandro together, both the way he's unashamed to ask big sister for help with the horror of Vatican finances and the fact that Giulia later tells him not to come to the notorious banquet. She'll provide Rodrigo with blackmail leverage on the entire consistory, sure, but not on her little brother. I love a woman with autonomy and thinking, not unthinking loyalties.
The banquet in question - as narrated by Burkhardt - is one of the set pieces in just about every biography written about the Borgias, as the epitomy of Renaissance clerical decadence. Trust this show to come up with a plot use for it that's not viewer tiltilation. (We actually don't see much of female nudity, and it's mostly done via Burkhardt's reaction shots and a very few expert cuts.) Which includes a novel explanation for Burkhardt's presence at the event. But to go back a bit. First of all, Rodrigo recognizing Giulia's handwriting in the records her brother gives him: good continuity (and also emphasis that Rodrigo notices more about the women he's in a relationship with than how fabulous they are in bed). His reaction, mirroring his present post assassination attempts mind frame, is paranoid, but not so much that he doesn't listen or doesn't take what Giulia says in return seriously. He's not as vulnerable with her as towards Vannozza, but he does open up about his basic problem, and Giulia, being the practical woman she is, doesn't offer reassurances that surely some of the cardinals (other than her brother) won't stab him in the back (literally), or that God will look out for him etc., she comes up with a blackmail scheme. (Again, great continuity: this is how Vannozza, she and Lucrezia managed the cardinals last season.) To explain everyone's favourite Renaissance orgy as a set up and chronicling Burkhardt as the equivalent of a tape recorder is ingenious. (And as I said, I loved that Giulia, while coming up with this in the first place, also made sure her brother would not be present.) Of course, there is also karmic justice awaiting, and we finally get a pay off for that random thing at the start of season 2 where Rodrigo had sex with the Duchess of Gonzaga a couple of times, which makes it not quite as random in retrospect.
Meanwhile, among the young 'uns, and speaking of long term consequences: King Ferdinand, presumably remembering how the Borgias got the Sforza marriage annulled, is insisting on witnessed consummation. (Which for this particular marriage isn't historically true but period-wise actually is not an invention; as Rodrigo later says to Cesare, there is precedent.) Which he also gets some vicarious thrillls out. Lucrezia's "I will have blood for this" to her mother was actually the most interesting thing about this subplot for me, because in addition to not boding well for the current King of Naples, it makes me wonder whether the show will make her complicit in Alfonso's death. Which she wasn't, historically speaking, but then, the show has its own history, and it makes her act, not react for the end of her second marriage - hm. Can'd decide how I feel about this. Anyway, I could be completely off track there and it was just meant as foreshadowing that Lucrezia has plans re: the King of Naples.
I do appreciate we're not just back to business as usual with Lucrezia and Cesare, now with added sex, but that they're both shown very affected by what happened. It's an interesting storytelling choice to let Cesare be the one determined it will not happen again. But also a necessary balance, given that in the same episode Lucrezia gets a demonstration/reminder that being married means no autonomy over your own body, and if your husband isn't insisting, his family is. I am now curious what kind of character the show will make Charlotte (the French princess Cesare will historically marry); since both Rodrigo and King Louis have given Cesare freedom of choice (as long as it's a French alliance), her characterisation will be a comment on his as well.
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Date: 2013-05-07 03:24 pm (UTC)