Goya's Ghosts

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Hustler
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Post by Hustler »

It premiered in Spain and as far as I know is planned to be released this year in the States.
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Sonic Youth
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Post by Sonic Youth »

As far as I know, this will be a 2007 release.

Yes? No?

Goya’s Ghosts (Los Fantasmas De Goya)

Peter Besas in Madrid
Screendaily

Dir. Milos Forman. UK-Sp. 2006. 114mins.


Director Milos Forman and producer Saul Zaentz reteam for the first time since the Oscar-winning Amadeus (1984) with Goya’s Ghosts, a strongly crafted production which effectively brings to life not only the revered painter Francisco Goya but also the tumultuous period in which he lived.

Tightly-scripted plotting (the film also reunites Forman and Valmont screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere), lavish design and a commendable performance from Javier Bardem combine well in a feature that has enough twists in its plotting to keep audiences engaged.

Goya is a national hero in Spain, where the film opens on Nov 8 following a massive promotional campaign. There, audiences may prove to be somewhat more critical than in other territories of an icon’s treatment at the hands of a Czech film-maker and a French writer, although the casting of local talent in key roles should help. Certainly it should outpace lower-budget films featuring the artist, such as Bigas Luna’s Volaverunt and Carlos Saura’s Goya In Bordeaux, which opened within weeks of each other in Spain in 1999 (and each took less than $2m).

Box-office prospects beyond Spain may account for more than the balance of the film’s theatrical returns. Aside from the billing of names such as Natalie Portman, Goya is known beyond home – in recent years he has been the subject of a well-received biography by Robert Hughes as well as a direct influence on the latest generation of artists – and the amount of period detail should help ensure an audience beyond art buffs.

In Madrid in 1792 the Inquisition holds much of the power, cracking down on any anti-establishment ideas seeping in from the new republic of France. The young and beautiful Ines (Portman), accused of practising Judaism after refusing to eat pork, is tortured and confesses her guilt. Her father Bilbatua (Gomez), a wealthy merchant, forces Lorenzo (Bardem), a monk and one of the Inquisition’s most fearsome supporters, into signing a self-recriminatory confession, then uses it to appeal to the king (Quaid) and the artist Goya (Skarsgard), painter of Lorenzo’s portrait.

When the document is made public, Lorenzo flees – but Ines, now pregnant by the monk, is left to rot in jail.

Fifteen years later the French - under Napoleon - have “liberated” Madrid, expecting to be welcomed as heroes, but are set upon by locals in scenes that form the basis for some of Goya’s most famous works (and which are successfully recreated here). Lorenzo now holds high position under King Joseph, brother of Napoleon and new Spanish ruler, but is forced to flee when the English invade.

Meanwhile Ines, by now half mad and with most of her family dead, has been released and starts searching for the child she gave birth to while in jail. But her daughter (also played by Portman) has become an elegant prostitute, catering to the carriage trade on the Paseo del Prado.

The film ends with the execution of Lorenzo by strangulation. His inert body is thrown onto a cart that is followed by Ines, still distraught and clutching a baby abandoned in one of the street disturbances.


Even more than Forman’s Amadeus, Goya’s Ghosts is less about the artist in its title than those around him. Goya is an observer of a key, tumultuous period in Spanish history, weaving in and out of the plot, as when he introduces Lorenzo to Ines; or when he attends the dinner at which Lorenzo is forced to sign a “confession”; or when he sketches Lorenzo’s execution.

While Goya’s paintings are famed worldwide, their historical context is less well known. The screenplay wisely keeps the story fairly simple, concentrating on the artist’s embroilments with other characters, although some audiences may wince at certain historical clichés, including an Inquisition which owes more to Edgar Allan Poe than historical reality.

Javier Bardem is always riveting as the twisted opportunistic monk, despite speaking heavily accented English in the film’s English-language version, and ably carries the weight of the story. Fine support comes from Stellan Skarsgard as Goya, a sympathetic and humane observer of the horrors around him, although the scene in which he suddenly finds himself totally deaf verges on the histrionic.

Natalie Portman successfully applies herself to multiple parts, first as an innocent beauty, then as a desperate prisoner and finally as a vivacious prostitute.

But Goya’s Ghosts really shines on the technical front. Production design is lavish – the shoot used several of Spain’s royal palaces – and recreates street scenes to winning effect, while costume design meshes with the change of moods. Javier Aguirresarobe’s photography is crisp and colourful and the editing propels the narrative along briskly.

The only real technical flaw is a somewhat overpowering musical score which frequently grates, rising to absurd crescendos during certain key scenes.
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