The Naked Maja

I'm an avid Ava Gardner fan, but this film ranks near the bottom of her career efforts, with 'The Bible', 'The Blue Bird', etc. 'The Naked Maja' is beautiful enough to look at, but is poorly directed, narrated, and edited. The story of the Duchess of Alba, could have been the basis for a much more interesting film, but this film is a lesson in missed cinematic opportunities. Ava, more commonly called 'the most beautiful animal in the world', possessed a raw, exciting sexuality, that provided the few sparks, in an otherwise lifeless film. I definitely did not consider her the most beautiful women in films, but certainly one of the most sensuous. This was not a major film, and Anthony Franciosa was not a major star; even though I loved his work in 'A Hatful Of Rain'. I wanted to love this film, when it was released, and I was hopelessly smitten with Miss Gardner. Ultimately, I had to admit that it was not as good as some of her other disappointing films, like 'The Sun Also Rises', 'The Little Hut', 'Bhowani Junction', just to name a few. 'Mogambo', 'The Barefoot Contessa', 'Showboat', and 'The Night of the Iguana', were my personal favorite Ava Gardner films. Ava Gardner would rank right behind Hedy Lamarr and Elizabeth Taylor, as the most beautiful women in the world. Costumes for Ava, in 'The Naked Maja', were quite good.

This is a melodrama involving 18-19th century famed Spanish painter named Goya (Anthony Franciosa) and famous model (Ava Gardner) for the title painting . It's a slow vision of Saragossan painter Francisco Goya Lucientes' waning days in Madrid , as he wanders through Madrid streets and watches the citizen uprising against Napoleon troops . It portrays his relationship with historic personages as Carlos IV (Gino Cervi) , his wife Maria Luisa (Lea Padovani) and the scheming favorite Godoy (Amadeo Nazzari). As Goya observes events, dances , parties , inquisition trials that inspired his work . As the highlights of the movie result to be when are brought to life scenes of known paintings as ¨portrayal of Carlos IV family¨, ¨The charge of Mamelucos¨, ¨The trails of Inquisition¨, ¨Los Caprichos¨ and many others .

This is a costumer partially based on facts but predominates the slow-moving melodrama. The picture relies heavily on lovely relationship between Goya and Duchess of Alba . Glamorously and sumptuously photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno , Federico Fellini's usual . Lavishly produced by Goffredo Lombardo -Titanus production- that the next years financed another vehicle for Ava Grdner as ¨Angel wore red¨ directed by Nunnally Johnson . Emotive and romantic musical score by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino . The motion picture is middling directed by Henry Koster and filmed with a pervasive melancholy that does for slow drama . Koster , a veteran Hollywood filmmaker expert on historical genre as ¨The robe , Desiree , The Virgin Queen and D-Day the sixth of June¨ and comedy genre as ¨Inspector General , Mr. Hobbs takes a vacation , Bishop's wife and Rage of Paris¨.

The flick weaves an intrigue between Duchess of Alba , Godoy and Goya who painted the famous Majas ; the actual deeds are the following : Two of Goya (Anthony Franciosa)'s best known paintings are The Nude Maja (La Maja Desnuda) and The Clothed Maja (La Maja Vestida). They depict the same woman in the same pose, naked and clothed, respectively. Without a pretense to allegorical or mythological meaning, the painting was "the first totally profane life-size female nude in Western art" . The identity of the Majas are uncertain. The most popularly cited models are the Duchess of Alba (Ava Gardner), with whom Goya was sometimes thought to have had an affair, and Pepita Tudó, mistress of Manuel Godoy; Godoy (Amadeo Nazzari)subsequently owned them. Neither theory has been verified, and it remains as likely that the paintings represent an idealized composite. The paintings were never publicly exhibited during Goya's lifetime. They were owned by Manuel Godoy, the Prime Minister of Spain during Carlos IV (Gino Cervi) kingdom and a favorite of the Queen, María Luisa (Lea Padovani). In 1808 all Godoy's property was seized by Ferdinand VII after his fall from power and exile, and in 1813 the Inquisition confiscated both works as 'obscene', returning them in 1836 to the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.

Other films dealing with Goya's life are : ¨Goya¨ by Nino Quevedo with Francisco Rabal ; ¨Los Desastres De Guerra¨ TV series by Jose Ramon Larraz with Enric Majo as Goya and the best is ¨Goya in Bordeaux (1999) by Carlos Saura with Francisco Rabal and Maribel Verdu as Duchess of Alba that is a highly theatricalized vision of exiled painter.

A well narrated film in sensational technicolor, where Ava Gardner shows her charm as actress. Her famous legend in Spain is very adecuate for this film. An magnificent world with wine, bulls, spanish music and the fabulous pictures by Diego Velazquez, a great spanish painter whose picture named "the naked maja" builds a magic legend in Spain. Curious and excellent film. And an inmortal woman: Ava Gardner...

If THE NAKED MAJA had a better script more faithful to the true life story of Spanish artist Francisco Goya and his affair with the Duchess of Alba, this may have been worth all the expense that went into producing it. There are fine production values including the gorgeous costumes worn by Miss Gardner, the opulent settings, the detailed color photography and the pretty background score full of pseudo-Spanish themes.

As a romantic drama, it only exposes the clash of two different acting styles--the overly intense histrionics employed by ANTHONY FRANCIOSA in the method tradition and the more natural technique of screen acting from AVA GARDNER as the woman he falls helplessly in love with at first sight. Her aloof demeanor only makes her more irresistible and there is one brilliant dance scene where the fiery Spanish flamenco music makes their emotions come to life vividly at least for the length of this sequence. Otherwise, their pairing as lovers never seems as intense as the script would suggest.

Despite an overuse of eye make-up, Gardner at this point in her career was still very attractive in what is basically a one-dimensional role as an aloof woman with a past who cannot bring herself to declare love for the artist until it is too late.

Henry Koster's direction is a tad too slow in pace but the main fault is the script which never permits the two leads to be anything more than one-dimensional in concept.

"The Naked Maja" is a fictionalized account of the life of the Spanish painter, Francisco Goya (Anthony Franciosa). It mostly centers on his relationship with the Contessa de Alba (Ava Gardner)...a relationship whose depth is really unknown today. Yes, we know that they were on good terms...but whether she was ever his lover or posed for the famous painting "The Naked Maja" (in the Prado museum in Spain), is really unknown. I really don't mind that the writers took liberties about their relationship...but there is a HUGE problem with the script. In real life, before he met the Contessa, Goya became DEAF! This is never mentioned nor alluded to in any way...and making a deaf man non-deaf is ridiculous. I don't mind some creative changes...but making him hearing just doesn't make sense. Add to this that the film is incredibly dull and listless, then you have a movie I really didn't like. I think my being an ex-history teacher accounts for a lot of this...as well as my having deaf family members. Overall, the writer forgot to do ANY homework and the film is sluggish.