About Me

I ramble about a number of things - but travel experiences, movies and music feature prominently. See my label cloud for a better idea. All comnments and opinions on this blog are my own, and do not in any way reflect the opinions/position of my employer (past/current/future).

23 August 2008

Movie: Goya's Ghosts

Francisco Goya is a famous painter, who lived in the late 1700s, and apart from painting portraits of famous people and murals on churches (as other famous artists did) - he was also well known for his portrayal of dark fantasy - of demons, hell and disturbing scenes of war and life of the times.

The opening scene of the movie, where the leaders of the Spannish Inquisition are examining his prints, one of the leading characters makes a comment that Goya is merely potraying the world as it is out there, and it is the Church's duty to cure the world, and not punish Goya for potraying the truth.

I thought, that would have set the tone of the story - given an examination/plausible theories of the stories behind the paintings. However, the movie instead meanders through the life of a rich devout merchant, his devout daughter, the corrupt church and priests and the general unfairness of life.

While maybe the general unfairness is Goya's ghosts, but I think the movie could have been much better - and had more sturcture. And, I wish it did not take so much artistic license in historical accounts and settings.

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