Strange coincidence: the actor Francisco Rabal not only plays the old Goya but in real life also died in Bordeaux, in 2001, two years after premiering the film.
This was the third time Francisco Rabal played Francisco de Goya in film and TV, after Nino Quevedo's Goya, historia de una soledad (1971) in 1971, and Mario Camus's 1983 TV series Los desastres de la guerra (1983). Already with Carlos Saura Rabal had already re-enacted one of Goya's most famous paintings in Llanto por un bandido (1964) "Duelo a garrotazos" (Fight with Cudgels) depicting a duel of two commoners fighting in a desolate place trapped knee-deep. It is shown in Museo del Prado.