Goya in Bordeaux (2000) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

This film employs some very imaginative technique. The story of the painter's life is told in flashback by a dying Goya. In his recollections, the stories appear as if in paintings themselves, or as if on stage. For example, we can sometimes see people walking behind walls, as if the walls were a stage scrim. (This allows old Goya to stand and comment on the actions of his younger self).

Court scenes are bathed in golden ambient light. The opening scene is a surrealist painting, anachronistic by more than a century, but prefigured in some of Goya's own works. One scene in the park looks like an impressionist's dream, with sun-bathed saturated greens and bright reds, this time about a half century before their time. (If I get it correctly, Goya is considered to be a precursor of modernism, so modernist styles are shown as an extension of his mind.) Other scenes look naturalistic. Anyway, the visuals are generally creative portrayals of the inside of an artist's mind - often mimimalistic and symbolic, allowing a few characters to stand in place of many. Goya's imaginings are in many different styles because he employed many different painting styles through his long life, and he had a major shift in the style and theme of his work after a bout with fever that nearly killed him when he was about 40.

Great look.

Dull movie.

Kind of a lesson in Spanish art and politics, more suitable to a classroom than a theater. I expected to hear those little ringing noises which remind the teacher to move on to the next image in the film strip.

Mine, too.