“The act of painting is about one heart telling another heart where he found salvation” – Francisco Goya.
The movie Goya’s Ghosts follows a part of the life of Francisco Goya. The movie shows the struggle in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition and the invasion of Napoleon, but it also follows Goya through his artistic journey and his depiction of the beauty and reality of the world.
Goya’s Ghosts would be considered a historical epic. A historical epic is a movie that is based on a very important historical event, but adds a story to make it more intriguing to audiences. But the story is one that definitely makes clear references to history while making you laugh. They focus on both individual episodes in Goya’s life but also on those that lived poor, and rich. Goya painted what he saw and never let his vision be squandered by someone because they do not like the real them.
The movie focuses primarily on the Spanish Inquisition and the invasion of Napoleon. Goya’s art is not the primary focus it seems, and he actually disappears halfway through and his paintings are shown less and less. But his disappearance allows you to get an accurate picture of the war, and the time frame by mentioning the idea of matter and atoms. The movie pays homage to the Protestant faiths, as well as the cruel and demeaning punishment known as “The Question” a form of torture used to interrogate subjects, and the mistreatment of the poor during the Inquisition.
The movie follows Goya as he paints for the Queen, Lorenzo, and even Ines. He captures the true beauty and innocence of the world as well as the pure ugly and evil. He portrays these dramatics by portraying the evils in an innocent manner. He creates prints that show sacrifices and battles. He also creates prints that show beauty and grace. Francisco is said to be the greatest painter in Spain. He is even remarked for his work after his unfortunate accident of becoming deaf.
Francisco painted true beauty and I believe that there was not enough shown of his work. The focus was mainly on the events around him. However, what bits we did see of his paintings did show the beauty and the pain he painted. He was a great painter and great man. After becoming deaf he was still revered even after he stopped painting. If Francisco would have been more of a fighter he could have made so much change in the world he was surrounded in. He did influence the world with his art, but I believe his words would have influenced more as well.
The setting in the movie though was well depicted. The scenery stayed in character and era with the movie’s set time. The wigs were represented as they were back in that time period. As well as their dresses and clothes. The walls and background were decorated in a minimal and farm/rustic theme, as per the era. The people even talked as though they were of the time period. The movie had a constant tagline, “Tell me what the truth is.” A movie’s tagline that references telling the truth shows that it keeps close to it. It also points to the kind of man Goya was and how he wanted the truth to be revealed and that’s what he did through his work.
