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Review by Rick Romancito
One of the criticisms of great romantic art has been that it was all passion and no substance. While that is not entirely true of director Carlos Saura's film about 18th century Spanish artist Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, it may not be far from the viewer's mind.
Largely leaning on the great cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro, for its vivid color and imagery, Saura's film attempts to express in the artist's own visual terms a look back on his life as a man, a lover and a creative being (which some may argue is a combination of the first two).
At times spectacularly successful, as in the film's opening sequence involving the bloody flesh of a bull evolving into the withered face of the painter in his 80s, it can at times reach for a foothold to maintain its visual style amid a conventional story.
Goya, portrayed in old age by Francisco
Rabal, finds himself in France, exiled and removed from all that
he held dear by time and space. It is through confessing, speaking
about how he came to this state, that we learn of the spirit inside
this man. Saura's film may not enlighten those who know little
about the artist, owing to its peculiar style of film-making.
For those who are familiar, it may be the film they've been waiting
for.
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