Another moview review, one that is closer to Coleridge’s life and times, this time.
Oscar-winner Milos Forman (Amadeus) doing a biopic about the famous Spanish painter, with Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman, and Stellan Skarsgard starring.
Sounded… Promising enough.
Was… Quite bad, actually.
In short, the plot is bullshit, completely unhistorical, and the characters are forgettable. (Though played through quite well.)
But the flick’s main problem is that, well, the title suggests this is about Goya, the painter is really just a background figure to a main plot that feels like it was taken straight out of one of the novels that the guys at Valancourt Books are just now so busily reprinting:
A (how not?!) depraved and corrupt priest, played by Bardem, lusts for the beautiful…Iforgothername, and thus, much in Gothic fashion, imprisons, and rapes her. The lady’s grief-stricken father in turn tortures the priest, but to no avail, and fifteen years later, the priest-now-turned-Bonapartist, the lady, and, of course, Goya, meet again, and… Well, drama ensues.
One can surely enjoy this movie, but I didn’t. First, being a Spaniard, the portrayal of Spain offends me. Second, the movie is sabotaged by its own marketing: It’s supposed to be about Goya. And it really isn’t. A wasted opportunity to tell a story that could be way more interesting, and a true waste of my time.
