Film:  Goya's Ghosts
Studio:    Antena 3 Television; Samuel Goldwyn Films; Sony Pictures
Director:  Milos Forman
Principal Actors:  Stellan Skarsgård, Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman Release:  2006; On DVD released February 26, 2008
Film length: 113 minutes
Rating: R for violence, disturbing images, some sexual content and nudity

4 Stars

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner

The life and career of Spanish artist Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (March 30, 1766-April 16, 1828) serves as a backdrop to this fictional account of victims of the Spanish Inquisition.  Examining a collection of prints by Goya, entitled Caprichos, members of the church condemned the drawings which hold up to scorn superstition, authority figures, and ignorance.  Goya entitled one of these prints El sueño de la razón produce monstruos - (The Sleep of Reason produces Monsters), and that becomes the theme of the film.

As an artist, Goya (Stellan Skarsgård) enjoys a special status, painter of Spain's King Carlos IV (Randy Quaid), and members of the nobility and the church.  One of his subjects is Ines (Natalie Portman), the daughter of a wealthy merchant.  Goya is captivated by her beautiful face, and in addition to her portrait, it appears in his images of angels.  He also paints a monk, Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem, recently named Best Supporting Actor for his work in No Country for Old Men).  The lives of the two subjects intersect when Ines is arrested and taken before the Spanish Inquisition on suspicion of practicing Judaism because she was observed dining at an inn and refusing to eat pork.  She explained to her inquisitors that she does not like pork, but after being "put to the question," she confessed as accused.  Her father enlists the help of Brother Lorenzo to secure the release of his daughter.  Brother Lorenzo informs him she must stand trial because she has made a confession.  Her father maintains anyone would confess to anything if subjected to torture, but Lorenzo holds God would deliver one the strength to withstand any pain and stand with the truth.  (Given the current debates on the practice of waterboarding, this discussion is quite thought provoking).  A demonstration of the father's argument upon Brother Lorenzo is a pivotal plot point, leading to Lorenzo's exile from the church (though his conduct with the imprisoned Ines would have been a better reason for ouster).

The times change as news reaches Spain of the end of the French Revolution, followed by Napoleon's move to "liberate" Spain.  Lorenzo now stands with the French government, in a powerful position to judge those who once judged him.  Goya, now deaf as the result of illness, watches the fall of one regime and the rise of another.  He seeks help for the finally freed Ines, now homeless and orphaned, in her quest to find the child born to her in prison, a discovery Lorenzo would prefer remained hidden.  Although at this point the film begins to bog down to rather a soap opera storyline, there are powerful images of the overtaking French army, the insane asylum where Ines is held, and the pillaging of the art museums of Spain for paintings that will please the emperor.

An invasion of British forces shows how quickly the fortune of power may turn.  Lorenzo, once judged, then judging, finds himself judged again.

Bardem gives a powerful performance, inspiring sympathy for a rather evil character.  Portman, lovely as always, shows a great range in portraying the long-imprisoned Ines and the toll the time of captivity took on her beauty and her senses.  Further, she rises to the additional role of the daughter of Ines, an angry, spirited young woman.  As Goya, Skarsgård is more in the role of an observer, a comfortable position for an artist, but he fulfills the part well, becoming the catalyst of all he sees and experiences.

Director Milos Forman (Academy Award winner for Best Director for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1975; and Amadeus, 1985), fully captures the feel of the period of this film and clearly shows the monsters that come to be when reason sleeps.