I do not know the price tag for this film, but my guess is that they could have used more dough. The Napoleonic Wars are hard to do on a budget. Tableau representations of Goya's works were charming. They went on too long and the acting added in was pure ham. The whole thing seemed a disjointed mess to me. I was reminded of Ken Russell's "The Music Lovers" in which Richard Chamberlain has a poetic delirium from typhus. Goya was obviously an accomplished political artist, yet the film portrays him as a narcissistic bumbler. As an American, I was impressed with all the overtly sentimental sexism and ageism at the heart of the movie. Old men obviously all dote and drool. Young granddaughters obviously grin and bear it. Wink. Wink. It was all too wholesome to be surreal and too surreal to be taken seriously as history. I had great hopes for it, but I was disappointed.
Review of Goya in Bordeaux
