Goya’s Ghosts

The painter Goya becomes involved with the Spanish Inquisition when his muse, Ines, is arrested by the church for heresy. Director Milos Forman used Goya’s drawings, especially the series titled “Los Caprichos” (“The Caprices”), for visual inspiration, and the cinematography can truly be called painterly. Like the Goya prints being examined by the good fathers of the Inquisition in the opening scene, the images stand on their own, resisting the pull toward narrative, yet adding up to a portrait of grotesque people debased by their society. The priests lament Goya’s negative portrait of Spain, which shows remarkable prescience on their part. Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem), a member of the Spanish Inquisition, seeks to curry favor with the Inquisitor General by arresting the muse (Natalie Portman) of artist Francisco Goya (Stellan Skarsgard). Lorenzo’s plan backfires when the woman’s father, a wealthy merchant, captures and tortures Lorenzo, and he must flee the wrath of his fellow Inquisitors. You can watch the movies on Amazon Prime.