Goya's Ghosts
Saturday June 16, 2007
A Movie Review
by Stan Parchin
About the movie:
Goya's Ghosts is produced and directed by Milos Forman, twice an Academy Award winner. This most recent effort by the Czech genius is a vivid interpretation, partly fictional, of 15 years in the life of Spanish Rococo and Romantic artist Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828), the brilliant court painter to pompous King Charles IV of Spain (r. 1788-1808). While in service to the crown, the soon-to-be-deaf Goya renders a realistic and sensitive portrait of one Ines, the daughter of a prominent Spanish merchant. In the tumultuous heat of the oppressive Inquisition, Goya's (un)popular etchings of witches and things supernatural become known throughout Spain and in Rome, drawing attention to his intellectual and religious preoccupations. Under duress, Ines (Goya's artistic muse) wrongly confesses to heresy during merciless torture by monks unconvinced of their own convictions. The imprisoned maiden is soon seduced by one of the spirtually bankrupt prelates. Goya's subsequent unflattering equestrian portrait of Charles IV's queen, the Italian Maria Luisa, provokes the pretentious potentate's ire. Forman's 114-minute drama is a thorough exploration of religious hypocrisy in Spain from 1792 through 1807.
The film stars Stellan Skarsgård as Francisco de Goya, Natalie Portman as Ines, Javier Bardem as Lorenzo the monk and Randy Quaid as the haughty King Charles IV of Spain. Shot on location in Spain, Goya's Ghosts makes excellent use of artworks from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Frick Collection and Hispanic Society of America, Madrid's Museo del Prado and other collections. An intricate sequence detailing Goya's printmaking process is absolutely fascinating. The soundtrack of period music to Goya's Ghosts is nothing less than stunning. And Milos Forman spares no expense in describing the contradictions of turn-of-the-century Spain, from the heights of its royalty's pretensions to the depths of its people's squallor.
Look for a DVD release of Goya's Ghosts sometime this Fall.
For further reading:
Hughes, Robert. Goya.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 2003.
Ives, Colta and Susan Alyson Stein. Goya in
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (exh. cat.).
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995.
Rishel, Joseph J. Goya: Another Look (exh. cat.)
Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1999.
Image credit:
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828)
Self-Portrait After Illness of 1792-93, ca. 1795-97
Brush and gray wash on paper
6 x 3 9/16 in. (15.3 x 9.1 cm)
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1935 (35.103.1)
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art
by Stan Parchin
About the movie:
Goya's Ghosts is produced and directed by Milos Forman, twice an Academy Award winner. This most recent effort by the Czech genius is a vivid interpretation, partly fictional, of 15 years in the life of Spanish Rococo and Romantic artist Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828), the brilliant court painter to pompous King Charles IV of Spain (r. 1788-1808). While in service to the crown, the soon-to-be-deaf Goya renders a realistic and sensitive portrait of one Ines, the daughter of a prominent Spanish merchant. In the tumultuous heat of the oppressive Inquisition, Goya's (un)popular etchings of witches and things supernatural become known throughout Spain and in Rome, drawing attention to his intellectual and religious preoccupations. Under duress, Ines (Goya's artistic muse) wrongly confesses to heresy during merciless torture by monks unconvinced of their own convictions. The imprisoned maiden is soon seduced by one of the spirtually bankrupt prelates. Goya's subsequent unflattering equestrian portrait of Charles IV's queen, the Italian Maria Luisa, provokes the pretentious potentate's ire. Forman's 114-minute drama is a thorough exploration of religious hypocrisy in Spain from 1792 through 1807.
The film stars Stellan Skarsgård as Francisco de Goya, Natalie Portman as Ines, Javier Bardem as Lorenzo the monk and Randy Quaid as the haughty King Charles IV of Spain. Shot on location in Spain, Goya's Ghosts makes excellent use of artworks from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Frick Collection and Hispanic Society of America, Madrid's Museo del Prado and other collections. An intricate sequence detailing Goya's printmaking process is absolutely fascinating. The soundtrack of period music to Goya's Ghosts is nothing less than stunning. And Milos Forman spares no expense in describing the contradictions of turn-of-the-century Spain, from the heights of its royalty's pretensions to the depths of its people's squallor.
Look for a DVD release of Goya's Ghosts sometime this Fall.
For further reading:
Hughes, Robert. Goya.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 2003.
Ives, Colta and Susan Alyson Stein. Goya in
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (exh. cat.).
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995.
Rishel, Joseph J. Goya: Another Look (exh. cat.)
Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1999.
Image credit:
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828)
Self-Portrait After Illness of 1792-93, ca. 1795-97
Brush and gray wash on paper
6 x 3 9/16 in. (15.3 x 9.1 cm)
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1935 (35.103.1)
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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