REVIEW

Goya's Ghosts

Goya's Ghosts is a 2006 Spanish/American film directed by Miloš Forman, and produced by Xuxa Producciones (Spain) and by Saul Zaentz, and written by Miloš Forman and Jean-Claude Carrière. The film stars Natalie Portman, Javier Bardem and Stellan Skarsgård, and was filmed on location in Spain during late 2005. The film was written, produced, and performed in English although it is a Spanish production. Although the historical setting of the movie is authentic, the story itself is fictional.

Now I would like to tell you the plot. The action took place during the reign of Charles IV. Francisco Goya was a famous court painter. At the dawn of the Napoleonic wars, the Holy Inquisition in Spain activated. Among others get Ines, the daughter of a wealthy merchant Thomas Belbatua. She was Goya's muse, as her face was depicted with regularity in paintings and frescoes. Inez's father wanted to save his daughter and asked Goya, who was working on a portrait of an influential priest Lorenzo, to help.

Ines leaves the Inquisition 15 years later, with the arrival of Napoleon's army to Spain. Together with the Napoleon's brother, returns to his father Lorenzo, who was no longer a monk, but an exemplary family man and an influential official of Napoleonic regime.

Ines' family was murdered. She came to Goya and asked for help to find her daughter, who was born in prison. Goya seeked the help of Lorenzo. Lorenzo sent Ines to a madhouse, and began to search for his illegitimate daughter. Later Goya succeeded in redeeming Ines from madhouse.

Goya accidentally found Alicia, Ines' daughter. She earned her living as a prostitute. Lorenzo was trying to give her the money and sent to America, but he didn't tell her that he was her father. She was frightened and ran away. Later due to his order Alice got in a raid in the tavern, and was sent to America. However, at that time British troops entered to Spain, released prisoners and restored the authority of the church and the king. The final scene was Lorenzo's death penalty, who refused to apologize to the church in the face of death. Alicia observed the penalty on the balcony among the British officers, and in the crowd was Ines. Lorenzo was executed. Ines was following for the cart, carrying the body of her only man, and was holding his hand. Goya was behind her.

The main theme is violence, religious violence and war. As a painter, Francisco Goya is known for his marvelous portrets, as well as for his very crude paintings of war and violence – a contrast that one experiences when visiting the Prado museum in Madrid. I think I somewhat better understand the mind of Goya after seeing this movie, how he must have been profoundly hurt by the violence around him while at the same time experiencing deep compassion, which moved him to record in his drawings and paintings what he saw. The movie confronts us with the tragedy of those who suffer evil and violence, and it makes us more sensitive and compassionate in our own world: violence is still very much around us.