Goya. Out Tuesday. (**********10/10)
“The paintings…reflect the cleansing terror to which the Holy Inquisition aspires in God’s name”
Perhaps nothing in human history has ever compared to the Spanish Inquisition when it comes to doing evil in the name of God. As the Cardinal says in Goya, the church acknowledged the fact that they are trying to inspire terror in the people. They figure the only way to convert people to Christianity and make sure that all of Spain is Christian is to scare people so much that they will never utter a word that is not Christian in nature, and thereby eventually come to believe what they are saying. Well, they got the terror part right, that’s for sure.
Goya is as much a film about the Spanish Inquisition as it is a movie about the famous Spanish painter Francisco Jose De Goya. His story mirrored that of the Inquisition, and he became a player in the bizarrely political world that surrounded that most heinous of historic periods. He remains one of the most famous painters in history, and this film deals with his painting in juxtaposition with that particular historic period.
Goya opens with a religious procession, one which creepily involves self-flagellation. You remberm that creepy albino guy in The DaVinci Code who whipped himself? Frankly, I hope you don’t. I hope no one saw that movie, because it sucked. Watch Goya instead, it doesn’t suck. In many circles, it is considered a classic, and I wholeheartedly agree. This movie is epic in scope, in design, and in vision. The costumes in that opening scene are remarkable. The colours are vivid and magnificent, which is fitting for a movie about painting. And Donatas Banionis’ performance as the painter Goya is staggering.
Even from the beginning of the movie, Goya is clearly eccentric. He paints all night when he is inspired, churning out one, and sometimes two or three, paintings by morning. He paints with a candle stuck to his top-hat, wax dripping down into his face, to light his canvas. He is prone to spells of deafness and other spells of out-of-control rage. He is constantly fighting with his student, and their relationship is an odd one. They are constantly engaging in screaming matches, with Goya deriding the younger man’s technique and the younger man mocking Goya’s subject matter. But then an hour later they seem to have forgotten about it, and although they are constantly at each others’ throats, they appear to genuinely love and respect each other.
Goya’s biggest failing appears to be his lust for women. He is constantly cheating on his wife, and chasing after the pretty girls who are all around. Chief among these women is the Duchess of Alba, an absolutely gorgeous woman who is clearly, right from the beginning, a sort of femme fatale. We can tell right away she will contribute to his downfall, as he is such a passionate and hotheaded man that she can lead him wherever she likes simply by being beguiling and sexy. She knows it, and she plays him like a fiddle for a long, long time.
While Goya is chasing after women and painting stuff for the royal family as the court painter in Spain, the Spanish Inquisition is gathering steam. We see a particular session of the Inquisition, where four people are brought up on “trial”, and forced to recant their statements. One guy, who said he didn’t believe that saints could cure all disease gets off easy - four years as a slave. One woman refuses to recant. She is charged with singing songs that are “against God”. These are traditional Spanish songs, as she puts it “the songs of our mothers”. She is put to death.
This is the first time Goya and the Inquisition intersect. Having seen this madness with his own eyes, he starts to feel that he must paint it. And he does. He paints the scenes of the Inquisition, the terror of the common people, the evil in the eyes of the Inquisitors. Everyone around him is desperate for him to destroy, or at least hide, these paintings, because if the Inquisition sees them he will surely be killed. But Goya will not listen and he won’t hide them. In fact, he displays them. And gets called in front of the Inquisition.
What follows is, in my opinion, one of the great scenes in movie history. He is not being summoned for punishment, or for questioning, but rather to receive congratulations. The Inquisitor is pleased with his pictures. He is glad that the Inquisition is inspiring such fear. Not only that, but he is deluded enough to see what he wants to see in the paintings, while believing that they serve a greater purpose. Because these paintings, to those who understand art, are blatantly anti-Inquisition. But subtle and clever enough that the very people he is skewering are the ones thanking him for doing it.
There is a similar scene a little later on. Goya begins to get bolder, and does this very same thing to the Royal Family, right to their faces. He paints them exactly as he sees them - petty, ridiculous, and corrupt. But they love the painting, and reward him for it. After a while, this adulation is what starts, I believe, to drive him over the edge. He makes numerous references in the second half of the movie to Don Quixote, and he clearly understands that he is going a bit crazy, and even understands a bit of the nature of that insanity. It seems to come from this amazing ability to mock people and yet have them alap him on the back.
And then he goes all out. You don’t get it when I make fun of you subtly, in painting? He seems to be saying. Well, how about if I make it as blatant as possible. This is the difference between Neil Young performing Let’s Impeach The President on the Colbert Report, and Neil Young stepping on George Bush’s neck and spray-painting “Impreachment” on his face. And this move gets results. And action.
You’ll have to see it to find out. I will give no more away, because I think everyone should watch this movie. Goya deals with not only one of the most interesting men to ever live, but also one of the most terrifying, brutal times and places to be alive in all of human history. Goya is a must-watch. It comes out November 25th, from First Run Features.