Milos Forman’s latest historical pageant, “Goya’s Ghosts,” plays like a pale shade of “Amadeus.” Like the Czech director’s Oscar winner, it’s a tale of artistry and corrupt power set in the era of the French Revolution and Napoleon.
“Ghosts” also bears insights into inspiration and craftsmanship, a smart and cynical view of politics and a villain more interesting than its creative protagonist.
Similarities stop there. “Amadeus” swept us along with great irony and human complexity. “Ghosts”‘ story, by Forman and the respected, if past-his-prime French scenarist Jean-Claude Carriere, is often unfocused and more than a little hokey. Forman long wanted to make a movie about the Spanish Inquisition that reflected his own dire experience under Nazi and Communist regimes. This is it. But in realizing his dream, he seems to have lost track of the film’s central subject.
That, of course, would be Francisco de Goya, played rather drably here by Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård. A genius so classically gifted he earned commissions from Spanish royals as well as the emperor’s puppet replacements, Goya quite arguably also pioneered modern art with his shocking “Black Paintings,” and the seminal “Disasters of War” series, which weren’t seen until after the artist – and Napoleon – were long gone.
Apparently, Goya would paint anything (and anybody who paid for the privilege) and was essentially apolitical in a time when everyone was choosing one side or another. Unfortunately, Goya is pretty much a side character here who keeps getting involved with the much more dramatic – and utterly fictitious – tribulations of pious yet deeply disturbed Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem) and his victimized lust object, Goya’s beautiful young model Ines (Natalie Portman).
When the film opens in 1792, Goya is also painting Lorenzo’s official portrait. The monk is enraptured by a picture of Ines in the artist’s studio and has her arrested, tortured and imprisoned by the Inquisition so that he may have his way with her.
The story suddenly jumps 16 years into the future, to Napoleon’s brutal efforts to “liberate” the Spanish people from religious and royal oppressors.
Forman and his Spanish cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe (“The Others”) make effective stabs at vivifying some of Goya’s images and curate a lovely display of great art, clothing and architecture. They are less successful at bringing guerrilla warfare, which was more or less invented during the Peninsular War, to life.
Goya’s Ghosts”
R for violence, sex, nudity, language, children in jeopardy | 1 hour, 53 minutes | HISTORICAL DRAMA | Directed by Milos Forman; written by Forman and Jean-Claude Carriere, photography by Javier Aguirresarobe; starring Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard, Randy Quaid | Opens today at area theaters.
