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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Historic > French Revolution > Spanish Inquisition > Goya’s Ghosts (2006/Umbrella Entertainment/PAL Region Zero/0/DVD)

Goya’s Ghosts (2006/Umbrella Entertainment/PAL Region Zero/0//DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Film: C

 

 

PLEASE NOTE: This DVD can only be operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Zero/0 PAL format software and can be ordered from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment at the website address provided at the end of the review.

 

 

Milos Forman was once a premiere world class filmmaker, but he has slowly lost his touch in recent years.  When he takes risks, he can come up with gems like The People vs. Larry Flint or One Flew Over The Cookoo’s Nest, but he has his misses like Hair and Valmont.  After Amadeus, he has not been able to pull off a costume period piece as good and after Valmont did not work out, he has made Goya’s Ghosts his first film in seven years and it went barely noticed.  Now on DVD from Umbrella in Australia, we can see why.

 

An odd mix of drama and politics, Stellan Skarsgard is the great artist Francisco Goya, who must endure the stupidity of the Spanish Inquisition in its death throes.  Part of the trouble comes from the Vatican as expected, specifically from the devious Father Lorenzo (Javier Bardem in a role and performance that almost backfires) who intends to torture Goya and his female inspiration (a bold Natalie Portman) in the worst possible ways.  He is interested in her as well.

 

Though the set up is interesting, the film gets away from Forman and never totally works.  The mistreatment of Portman’s Inez is overdone and reminds us that he sometimes has problems with female characters.  But ultimately for all that goes on, no great points are made and we see, hear and learn nothing new, which sort of happened with his film of Ragtime.  The film covers 15 years into the rise of Napoleon and even that does not work out as well as it could have.  Randy Quaid and Michael Lonsdale as the main Inquisitor General also show up, but they cannot help this work either.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is a little weak than expected for such an expensive, good looking film shot in 35mm, but it has some good moments as lensed by Director of Photography Javier Aguirresarobe of The Road, The Sea Inside, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and first two Twilight sequels.  The look for the film helps to save it form being worse.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is not bad and has some good surround moments, but it is not a great mix, though this is a limited lossy codec that made me wish for DTS.  A trailer for this and a few other Umbrella DVD releases are the only extra.

 

 

As noted above, you can order this PAL DVD import exclusively from Umbrella at:

 

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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