GOYA IN BORDEAUX
Spain, 1999, 102 minutes, Colour.
Francisco Rabal, Jose Corinado, Maribelle Verdu.
Directed by Carlos Saura.
Goya in Bordeaux starts with the ailing artist in exile in France. With suggestions of the lithographs of the abattoirs that he did in that city, the film leads into Goya's situation, his relationship with his wife and daughter, and then it goes back into his memories. The film has the opportunity to show many of Goya's paintings, in the palace, in corridors, appearing at the back of sequences to illustrate the action. Many of his paintings are re-created in tableaux, with the naked Duchess of Alba, with the war devastation of the Napoleonic era.
Goya is shown as the court painter, the experience of illness and going deaf, his relationships with family and with women, especially the Duchess of Alba. It also shows him as a liberal, wanting a change in the autocratic government of Spain but finding himself exiled.
Francisco Rabal, veteran of so many Spanish films, is most persuasive as Goya in his old age. The film elicits sympathy for the artist as well as criticism of his life, his relationships. At the end of the film there is a quotation from author Andre Malraux, who stated that modern art began after Goya.
Direction is by the veteran Carlos Saura (Raise Ravens, Momma Turns 100, Ay Carmela and the dance films like Blood Wedding, Tango and Flamenco). He brings a vivid visual style with artificial settings and light, illustrating as well as the imagination of Goya.
1. Audience knowledge of Goya, his art, his time and influence in his period, the monarchy in Spain, exile in France? The film gathering these elements together for a portrait and biography of the artist?
2. The re-creation of Bordeaux in the late 18th century, the house, the streets? The flashbacks and the Spanish court, interiors - and the sudden change to he exteriors in the park? The musical score, classical music, echoes of Spanish and flamenco-style music and dance? The performance in the court of the dance?
3. The focus on Goya as a man, his strengths, shortcomings? Love for his family, infidelities? The Duchess of Alba? His retrospect on his being a court painter, on the Queen and her intrigues, the killing of the Duchess of Alba, Godoy and his taking of the artwork? Goya as a yes-man in the court, his change?
4. The old Goya - in bed, waking up bewildered after the dream of the images of the carcasses? The transformation into his face? Going out on the street lost, Rosarito bringing him home? A cantankerous old man, ill, his medicine? The bath, the meals, wandering about the house? Wandering his memories? The importance of the flashbacks and their illuminating his life? Rosarito and listening to his stories, asking him questions? His gradual failing and illness? Dictating ideas to his friends? His final illness, the name of the Duchess of Alba on his lips? His death?
5. Goya's artistic achievement in Bordeaux - the scene with the printing of the lithographs? His memories of the influence of Velasquez and the use of light, seemingly unfinished, natural as if it were a spontaneous picture?
6. The tradition of Goya's paintings, the portraits of the royal family and other dignitaries? The transition to compositions and individual studies like the Duchess of Alba? The significance of his attitude towards France and its invasion of Spain, the atrocities and executions, the poor and the wounded, the tableaux of the war?
7. Goya at 45 and his illness, his deafness? Painting, his relationships, presence in the court, intrigues, the Queen, Godoy and his taking of the paintings and pointing them out to Goya?
8. The presentation of the artist, a study and a biography? A portrait? The film re-creating Goya's atmosphere and enabling the audience to appreciate and understand?
