Even before I got a Czech boyfriend, I admired the films of Czech director Milos Forman.  Amadeus was the first of Forman's films I saw and I'm still very fond of it.  When I discovered later that other films I like including "Hair" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" were also by the same director, he became a personal favorite of mine right next to Stanley Kubrick.

When "Goya's Ghosts" released in 2006 it played at one of the art theaters in Austin but I never managed to see it.  I think I was occupied with too many worries or I was in a mood where going to a movie theater was too much trouble.  This oversight was remedied last weekend when I saw the film on DVD in the comfort of my own home.

I started the film with very few preconceived ideas.  All I knew was the director and and that the film addressed the life of Spanish painter Fransisco Goya.  It was a very pleasant experience to begin watching a film with a vague idea that I'll enjoy it and then to have my prediction thoroughly come true.

The film takes place entirely in Spain and begins in the late 1700's during the Spanish Inquisition.  Themes addressed include a long, hard look at the injustices of the Inquisition, the mixed blessings of the French Revolution (as it impacted Spain,) corruption, love, and torture.  I'm not going into any plot details here because the plot is adequately covered by a Wikipedia article.

The performance rendered by Natalie Portman is very good but apparently not award-winning.  She plays three characters in the film:  Inés:  the daughter of a wealthy merchant, Inés during and after being tortured by the Inquisition, and Alicia:  the daughter of Inés and a corrupt priest who was conceived in prison.  Natalie is an Israeli-American and her character in this film is tortured by the Inquisition on suspicion of being Jewish. 

Javier Bardem's performance is much better than Natalie's.  His character follows an interesting arc from a corrupt priest working within the Inquisition to a devious prosecutor working under Napoleon's occupying army to punish the church leaders he previously worked for, to a heretic being burned at the stake after the church reclaims power in Spain.  Bardem's natural Spanish accent plays well in this role and his face is perfect for such a character.

Stellan Skarsgård turns in a good performance as the title character, Fransisco Goya.  I couldn't help feeling that I was watching "Immortal Beloved" when Goya goes deaf halfway through the film.  More than admiring Skarsgård's performance, I found myself admiring the character he played.  Goya's works of art depicting the horrors of the inquisition and the bravery and integrity his character displays throughout this film are heroic and highly admirable in my view.  I find myself wanting to see more of Goya's work. 

Finally, Randy Quaid turns in a good performance as King Carlos IV of Spain.  It's hard to imagine him as the same actor who portrayed Cousin Eddie in National Lampoon films.

Have you noticed that Foreman uses insane asylums a lot?  "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is entirely set in a nut house and both "The People vs. Larry Flynt" and "Goya's Ghosts" have pivotal scenes in mental hospitals.