Blanca Portillo, Javier Bardem, José Luis Gómez

Painter Francisco Goya faces a scandal involving his muse, who is labeled a heretic by a monk.

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59% liked it

5,363 ratings

Critics

29% liked it

83 critics

R, 1 hr. 54 min.

Directed by: Milos Forman

Release Date: July 20, 2007

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DVD Release Date: February 26, 2008

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Flixster Reviews (1,717)


  • March 29, 2009
    A tale of the Spanish Inquisition, French Revolution and British Invasion as told through the eyes of Spanish painter Francisco José De La Goya y Lucientes. Bardem, Skarsgard and Portman turn in magnificent performances in this period piece. I will not speak for the accuracy or...( read more) inaccuracy of the history as I'm ignorant of most of these events. The film is quite engaging and the story is interesting. The film seems a bit choppy in transitioning from one period to the next and this is probably due to time restraints. The 15 year transition seems too much but without it, the film would have been monstrous in length.
  • February 21, 2009
    Master Spanish painter Francisco de Goya is confined here to be a mere middle man, a MacGuffin in a tasteless soap opera set in the midst of two centuries.
    Milos Forman is a good director, but neither he nor his co-writer, the famous Buñuel collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière could...( read more) follow a truly significant period of Goya's life.
    It pretends to cover a big span of time, but falls short.
  • December 10, 2008
    ''I met her once... don't recall her being quite so ugly though. How did she have so many lovers?''
    ''She was the Queen, Your Majesty.''

    Painter Francisco Goya faces a scandal involving his muse, who is labeled a heretic by a monk.

    Javier Bardem: Brothe...( read more)r Lorenzo

    Natalie Portman: Inés / Alicia

    Stellan Skarsgård: Goya

    Although Goya is the protagonist in this epic drama, his inner self is examined no deeper than the souls of his fellows. The plot of Ghosts is driven by flawed people, making the wrong moves, struggling to do the right thing but held back by their ignorance and lack of power to stand up against the State. It's an examination of Inquisition Spain, wars of liberation and political self-interest and as such is as timeless, with its modern echoes in Guantanamo, CCTV and the proposed extended UK police powers, as any psychological drama.

    Forman's first film in 7 years is an absorbing, powerful and stylish melodrama against a backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition. The award-winning Czech director wisely called on Jean-Claude Carriere to co-write the script, given the latter's penchant for subjects linked to religious criticism and political upheaval.

    The true central role goes to Lorenzo, a kind of Everyman who begins as a Catholic monk, decides to sacrifice his 'dangerous' artist friend's muse, Inez, to the Inquisition to keep Goya at a safe distance, falls from grace and joins Napoleon's marauders, returning as a revolutionary.

    Inez is expendable, or as today's world leaders would put it, collateral. Goya's efforts to sort everything out only at best confuse them further, just as everyone else's colliding actions do, especially Inez' father's efforts to free her . That seems to be the underlying theme: life as a storm of accidents, masquerading as plans. The last we see of Everyman, he is in a scene which is far more nightmarish than even Ken Russell managed.

    A beauty of a piece Goya is a piece of Historic Period Art in film from Milos Forman.
  • July 11, 2008
    And it's not even just because I can't make myself like Natalie Portman, although, I can't.
  • June 27, 2008
    There was a long debate between myself and others why this film is called Goya's Ghosts. Sure, Goya features often, but it's not really about him. It's more that he is the artist whose eyes and art the story is seen through.

    Though it portrays a brutal era in history, the...( read more) movie is (refreshingly) only moderately violent. It doesn't delve deep into Goya's life or the Inquisition, but it would appear to be historically accurate.

    It really works due to Javier Bardem. His character, Father Lorenzo, screws people over to a large extent, yet he brings the character across with such emotion that in the end, the viewer is sympathetic.

    Worth your time, worth your money, but it lacks something. I'll be sure to inform you as soon as I figure it out myself.
  • October 16, 2009
    M.Forman's the weekest work I have ever seen. Sharp falldown.
  • October 16, 2009
    Esse filme tem um roteiro criativo, que conseguiu dar conta do tema. E a Natalie Portman tá ótima.
  • October 13, 2009
    Excelentes atuações, história interessantemente absurda, e ainda conseguiram enfeiar a Natalie Portman. Genial.
  • September 23, 2009
    Milos Forman's sweeping historical epic has, we sense, about as much to do with history as a romance novel has to do with taste and restraint. That being said, it is about as handsome a film as we could possibly hope for; people looking for truth had best look to the history book...( read more)s. Francisco Goya (Stellan Skarsgard) was perhaps the most famous (or infamous) painter in Spain in the late 1700s. As the Spanish Inquisition started, the film suggests, the Church officials who were controlling the wretched chapter in history looked at Goya as a heretic, blaspheming against religious values with his provocative compositions and their content. In the film, Goya is a painter for hire, working for money, and we meet him as he is painting a muse of sorts: Ines Bilbatua (Natalie Portman). She is a lovely girl, the daughter of a merchant, but she has been suspected of her own heresy. The Inquisitors investigate her and torture her to determine if she is, in fact, a practicer of Judaism (seemingly the chief crime against the Church during the Inquisition). Goya is fond of her and goes to Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem), one of the Inquisition's chief religious figures in charge, attempting to spare her. Their lives are, from here on, intertwined and at about the halfway mark the film audaciously leaps forward "15 years later" to the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte (Craig Stevenson). Lorenzo has fleed to France and Goya is now completely deaf. Ines is released from her Inquisitional prison and has been badly disfigured, is almost mute, and quite mad, apparently. She believes she had a child with Lorenzo and that the child, Alicia (also played by Portman) must still be alive - somewhere. Lorenzo tracks her down, discovering she's a prostitute. The film has been directed and co-written by Milos Forman, who is known for his beautiful portraits of artists and outcasts, a champion of free speech and independence of spirit. Who else, after his debut feature ("The Fireman's Ball") was forever banned from his homeland, could escape the Communist regime of Czechoslovakia, only to come to America and create film after film about distinctly American ideals? Forman, in addition to his Oscar-winning history with films like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975) and "Amadeus" (1984), also made a hippie musical ("Hair"), a film about the most notorious purveyor of porn in America ("The People vs. Larry Flynt"), and a film about perhaps the most enigmatic comedian ever to live ("Man on the Moon," about Andy Kaufman). Here, he seems to have brought all of his technical prowess to bear on material that ain't quite ready for prime time. His screenplay, co-written with Jean-Claude Carriere (who has helped write everything from Luis Bunuel films to the Nicole Kidman flop "Birth"), is more a series of scenes written as an excuse for gorgeous backdrops and somewhat over the top performances; plot is not a word in this film's vocabulary. And what about those performances? Skarsgard, a Swede, makes no attempt whatsoever to sound different from his normal accent; Portman is in full-on semi-European mode, as if that will make her sound authentic; Bardem is Spanish, so he sounds more or less right at home (though he always sounds like he's speaking through a head cold), and what are we to make of Randy Quaid as King Carlos IV? So this isn't great Forman, but the story is interesting enough and it's very well-made. A minor work, to be sure.
  • September 12, 2009
    this had a fantastic cast but i really didnt like this movie

Critic Reviews


August 2, 2007
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

The film's greatest moments of artistry are in the credits, which feature a breathtaking gallery of the painter's work. full review

July 20, 2007
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

Ultimately Goya's Ghosts left me wanting to watch Amadeus again, for the pleasure of a story well told. full review

July 20, 2007
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Rich in color and period detail, the film attempts an epic sprawl it never quite achieves, but the movie is always enjoyable and interesting. full review

July 20, 2007
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

An extraordinarily beautiful film that plays almost like an excuse to generate its images. full review

July 20, 2007
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

An overstuffed turkey that's entertaining for all the wrong reasons. It may in fact be the comedy of the summer, a melodramatic folly whose ambitions consistently curdle into camp. full review

July 15, 2007
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

A beautiful disaster of a period picture. full review

View more Goya's Ghosts reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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