Goya and the Quest for the Decent Movie
To the benefit of the contemporary art lovers, Francisco de Goya outlived his epoch.
He died in 1828, at the age of 82, long after his wife and all but one of his sons died. It was also over 30 years after his 1792 illness left him completely deaf, and four years after exiling himself for the last time, from Spain to France. It was preceeded by a few years of isolation at a house near Madrid, where the great aging Spanish Master, which many consider the first modernist in art, had gloomy days painting the “black paintings”.
I got acquainted to Goya’s work in two main occasions. The first one was my visit to the Prado museum in Madrid, a few years ago. The Prado, which is Spain’s national museum, is an excellent art museum and hosts many spanish masters - from El-Greco and Velazquez to Goya and on; as well as excellent works of artists from other schools, nations and periods: don’t miss it when visiting Madrid. Goya is represented there in several galleries dedicated specifically for him. I was very impressed by two of those galleries: in the second floor there’s a gallery of bright paintings, dominated by the blue colour. In the second floor, near its end, there’s the black gallery.
The black gallery hosts Goya’s famous “black paintings”. It is a series of paintings he made while living in his last spanish house, at the early 1820s. All of these paintings are dominated by a black colour palette and depict depressing themes. Contrary to most of his other works, these are paintings that he made for himself and were not invited by some king or baron (most of his career, Goya was the spanish court’s official painter, and was patronized by the spanish king; this saved him numerous times, for example when the inquisition questioned him about his “Maja Nude” picture - a rare example of a spanish artist painting a nude, in a state harshly controlled by the catholic church). I remember having an emotional impact both by the black gallery itself, evenmore when comparing it to the other gallery of Goya, looking so cheerful next to it; not to mention the other famous works of him - the Napoleonic wars, the multiple portraits, and other. That’s the power of great art.
My second worthwhile encouner with Goya was in Tel Aviv. A few years ago the Tel Aviv museum of art, which is not nearly comparable to the Prado but nonetheless a nice museum, held a temporary exhibition about Goya’s Caprichos. The Caprichos, a series of etchings Goya distributed in 1799, introduced to me Goya as an etcher: later I found out, mainly with help from my grandfather (he is really good at this sort of things), that Goya had other famous series of etchings - for example, the disasters of war, or the Tauromaquia.
My grandfather actually told me a great deal about Goya, his biography, court relations, popular works, the context of the caprichos series (we went to see it together) and other related stuff; a lot of this biographical background crossed my mind yesterday evening, when I went to see with Elina the latest movie by Milos Forman, Goya’s Ghosts which was recently released in Israel.
I liked many aspects of the film: particularly, the photography, the light, and the actors. I have a few problems with the script - both because I didn’t feel they closed the plot too well (it proceeds well almost all the way, but looses it towards the end), and because I thought they made a bit of historical mess - at least the way I understand Goya’s biography, there are some gross mistakes in the film, positioning events in the wrong time spots and things like that; nothing crucial, but they could have easily made this script much more reliable without sacrificing too much.
If you accept that it is just a drama positioned at the early 19th century spain, and not a historical drama that claims to be somehow connected to true events, then it is really enjoyable; and it passes the spirit of the epoch really nice (just ignore some ridiculous scenes, like the scene with the clergyman in the merchant’s house). Over all, it is a good drama, and I recommend it - by the way, I would like to see it one day in the Spanish version and not in English, which can add a lot to the atmosphere.
We went to see this film yesterday, after multiple tries to get to a film. It was almost ridiculous: for about two weeks, every time Elina and I try to get to a film we either fall asleep, or be late to the beginning, or don’t find the cinema (did you know that in Horev center at Haifa they actually hide the cinemas at a tunnel that goes under the road that leads to the mall and not in the mall itself? And that even the sellers that work in the stores there don’t know where the cinema is? We didn’t know this, either. It was a hard time finding this particular detail out). By yesterday evening, we decided that we must finally get to a cinema - and took advantage of the fact that in central Israel, unlike Haifa, you can literally find a movie at any hour; even like that, we had to wait for almost an hour until we found a decent movie. It was worth it, though. Go and see for yourself. While you do it, we may write a script about our quest for the movie - maybe it will show up as a Hugh Grant summer comedy in a year or two.
Meanwhile, we’re busy with the next project: what should we do during the Passover vacation next week. We have some vague ideas, but still - recommendations are welcomed.
