The 2006 film, Goya’s Ghosts, directed by Milos Forman, is based on the life of Spanish painter and printmaker, Francisco Goya. Goya’s career intertwined with historical events such as the Spanish Inquisition and the French and British invasions, and the film does a good job of portraying these events. Many of these horrific and violent events inspired Goya’s most famous works. His prints, referred to as “black paintings”, showed agonizing scenes that reflected the brutal torture methods used by the Spanish Inquisition and the violent wars and invasions. His hearing loss also played a large role throughout the film and contributed greatly to his artworks. Stellan Skarsgard’s portrayal of Goya was both entertaining and well done. While the storyline throughout the movie is mainly fictional, you can see how Goya’s art was largely influenced by the events of the time.
Many times throughout the film you can see how the events happening around Goya might have influenced his works. During one scene early in the movie, one of Goya’s models, Ines, played by Natalie Portman, is being tortured by the Spanish Inquisition. In this scene Ines is seen hanging upside down naked. She is screaming and her facial expressions and body show pure agony. This scene looks extremely familiar to the scenes taking place in some of Goya’s black paintings. Many of the facial expressions portrayed in his black paintings mirrored the facial expressions of Ines during this scene. This scene really helps to push the idea that Goya drew what he saw going on around him. Another scene at the end of the film shows Goya sketching out an execution he witnessed. At this point he has lost his hearing entirely and only has his sight left. Since he cannot hear, his art is based on the things he sees going on around him, such as the political and wartime issues. In this way he is relying on his sight for his art and the movie shows this very well. As he watches the execution, he sketches everything he sees, including the facial expression of the victim. The characters of both Ines and Lorenzo are fictional but their stories reflect real events that occurred during this time that affected Goya. Including these characters helps the viewer to get a better sense of what was going on politically so that they may better understand Goya’s works.
While this film does do a good job of showing how Goya’s emotions and experiences were represented in his paintings, it also includes some inaccuracies. One of these inaccuracies is right at the beginning of the film. The opening scenes show members of the Spanish Inquisition discussing and examining Goya’s “Los Caprichos” etchings. According to the film, this scene takes place in 1792. However, according to art historians, these etchings were not done until 1797 and 1798. They were published as an album in 1799 and were withdrawn from public sale shortly after, only selling 27 copies. They would not have existed at the time that this scene takes place. This is a small mistake that the average person would not notice and it doesn’t really affect the overall plot. However, mistakes like these could affect the overall appeal of a historical film such as this one.
The film also focuses more on the dramatic storyline of Ines and Brother Lorenzo and ignores or only lightly touches on the life of Francisco Goya. Both Ines and Brother Lorenzo are fictional characters, as is their story. Goya, on the other hand, is very much real and his story and the events of his life are known very well. While this film does choose to show his hearing loss and how that affected him and his art for the rest of his life, there were many other important events that the film could have shown. The film does not show his marriage to Josefa Bayeu or the struggles they went through trying to have a child. The movie doesn’t even choose to show or mention Goya having a wife. It seems to be too busy focusing on the dramatic and made up storyline to touch on this at all. Goya’s character lacks development and he is more of a supporting role in this film. His character gets dragged into the drama that is unfolding in the lives of Brother Lorenzo and Ines. Given that the title of the film is Goya’s Ghosts, you would expect it to focus a bit more on the artist himself and his personal life. However, to make a film that is entertaining for a wider audience, it makes sense to focus more on the dramatic elements of the other characters, and not just on Goya.
While many of the events in the film were fictional, Milos Forman nailed the overall bigger picture. His brutal and violent depiction of the events of the time period are spot on and contribute to the idea that Goya himself, as well as his art, were both very complex. It shows how Goya’s art is a direct reflection of the events happening both in his personal life and in the world around him. Goya’s character aids in the development of the plot of the movie and helps give the viewer a better understanding of his life and his artwork.
