Goya

Life is but a series of fortuitous events called destiny. Francisco Goya lived a life fraught with fateful occurences which drove him to despair, and ended his days in Bordeaux. His three-times interpreter, Francisco Rabal, little knew as he made this film that he too would end his days in the same city. Such is the coincidence of life and death.

Goya (1999), made as `Goya en Burdeos', hints at these and other casualities in a refined genteel way, notwithstanding the sometimes temperamental mood of the Aragonés painter. The genius of this film is how Storaro's magnificent photography and Saura's gifted and inspired directing, actually brought to life so many of the painter's creations: paintings only seen in Madrid art museums or in books. It was a delight to suddenly recognize in scenes in the film some of these beautiful works, as if magically brought to life by technological tricks, but with so much care.

Rabal's interpretation is superb: it could not have been otherwise, this being the third and last time the old Murcian actor had to take on the task of being Goya. It is also worth mentioning Dafné Fernández, who gave an intelligently picturesque performance; as was to be hoped for after seeing her wonderful part as Fuensanta in `Pajarico' (qv) made one year earlier.

It cannot be denied that Storaro's photography frequently becomes one of the main protagonists in the film's telling. No doubt this is in response to the peculiarities of Saura's directing, and thus, for me, makes a near-perfect coupling. It must also be added that the music employed in the film has been exquisitely selected, first with Roque Baños' own composing beautifully intertwining with pieces by Boccherini, Couperin, Tchaickovsky and Beethoven, as well as by an anonymous 17th Century Spanish composer sounding very much like Luys de Narváez.

A serious film for those who appreciate excursions into historical cultural backgrounds balanced by a stately unhurried production.

As an art historian I found this film fascinating. It seemed to be true to its subject - a complex, gifted and liberal artist - and also an authentic study of the contrasts of late C18th Spain. It also provided interesting and accurate source material for anyone studying the art of the period and I use my off-air video of it to bring the life of this wonderful and under-rated artist to my students. It was a warm tribute to a man who was full of vigour even in old age, but did not over-romanticise him, showing us the flaws in his character as well as his innate humanity. The film worked well as drama, using good cinematic technique to underpin the story of an exciting and unusual life in a pivotal period of Western history. It also used the fantastic aspects of Goya's imagination to underline the paradoxes of his life. This is a typical European art house movie, of a type rarely made in the US or Britain, but non-specialist film watchers should not feel alienated by that. It is intelligent, witty, elegant, superbly acted (Paco Rabal in one of his last films is terrific - he was Goya to the inch), beautifully crafted, intense and dramatic. What more could we want from a movie?

Goya in Bordeaux (1999)

A beautifully filmed and imaginative look at Spanish painter Goya's final years in France. There are fantastical flashbacks (really nicely created with translucent sets and changing lighting) and there are imagined versions of scenes that led to his paintings, highly colorful and gruesome. And effective.

If this movie isn't a raging masterpiece, it is mostly because there is no real plot. It's slow going, even though it is meant to be deliberate and patient. It meanders along as he lives out his final isolated years and we are shown (in spurts) his work and his past. The old Goya himself is played with believable gusto by Francisco Rabal, and the younger (with surprising continuity) by Jose Coronado. Neither are names familiar to American viewers, but both are convincing, which isn't always easy portraying a famous artist. If there is a deeper point here, it is the journey we all make toward death. And from what I read, Goya was afraid of death, and would be afraid of old age just as much as this movie implies.

If you like your artists heroic and inspired, you might find this version of Francisco Goya a little earthy and self-absorbed. But for me this was about right. He was an old man with little future, too much pain to make significant new work, and lots of memories. Of course, this being a movie (and being about life, too), there is an emphasis on his love affairs, or at least his interest in one particular rich woman, the Duchess of Alba. In truth, there isn't a clear history of Goya being involved with this woman, though there are several portraits of her (not including, most likely, the famous pair of reclining figures, one nude and one clothed, though this is implied if not stated in the movie).

All of this is neither here nor there for loving what is wonderful about the movie. Director Carlos Saura has created a magical world for this final great painter, one filled with the grotesqueness we associate with his work but also with terrific inventiveness, making the paintings come to life without simply re-staging them. The best last sections of the film are a tour-de-force, and indeed the whole movie is vivid and surprising. If we are sometimes slightly unenthused about the events going on (which are often nothing much), we are completely sucked in by the ever changing scenes and sets and hallucinatory worlds, part real and part Goya's dying mind.

In other words, the best of this movie is simply amazing. And any movie with such amazing portions is worth watching, at least in those parts.

This movie portrays very well the Spanish history and like his last movies, Carlos Saura makes art out of the illumination and the colours. As usual, Paco Rabal is magnificent and Maribel Verdu is perfect for the role of la Duquesa de Alba, very sensual and a little evil.

I do not know the price tag for this film, but my guess is that they could have used more dough. The Napoleonic Wars are hard to do on a budget. Tableau representations of Goya's works were charming. They went on too long and the acting added in was pure ham. The whole thing seemed a disjointed mess to me. I was reminded of Ken Russell's "The Music Lovers" in which Richard Chamberlain has a poetic delirium from typhus. Goya was obviously an accomplished political artist, yet the film portrays him as a narcissistic bumbler. As an American, I was impressed with all the overtly sentimental sexism and ageism at the heart of the movie. Old men obviously all dote and drool. Young granddaughters obviously grin and bear it. Wink. Wink. It was all too wholesome to be surreal and too surreal to be taken seriously as history. I had great hopes for it, but I was disappointed.