Irishchatter At the beginning of the film, I thought it was quite interesting because of course, it seemed to me that it was very different. Why you ask? Because a priest told a young woman's father that he would promise to rescue her from being falsely imprisoned by the Catholic Church. Then when he greeted her at first, he disgraced himself by raping her and got kicked out by the monastery. I didn't get why he broke his promise because it was also concentrating on the painter Goya. OK, since this movie was about him, why did they add Lorenzo and Natalie Portman ' s character? Sure they didn't even exist for starters! Pretty much, Goya is last in the line, he isn't cared much especially having his name mentioned on the movie title! That's very disappointing to think they left Goya out completely!If I was Milos Forman, I would reconsider doing the storyline of the movie again but I would honestly keep the actors because I honestly loved seeing Natalie Portman and Javier Bardem!

rooprect What a disappointment it was to learn that one of my favourite directors, Milos Forman, would go to Spain where animal cruelty laws do not apply and would exploit that loophole to abuse and kill animals for our entertainment.A chicken is trampled by horses, a real animal carcass is thrown into a field so that vultures can be shot, horses are abused and in obvious distress. And unlike civilized countries where this can all be done with special effects and animatronics, Forman took the cheap route and caused harm and death to actual living creatures."The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by how well it treats its animals." ~M.K. GandhiSpain, you blew it.Milos, you blew it.I realize that there are those among you who do not care about real animals being killed or abused in films. That is your prerogative. But I, for one, wish someone had warned me before I wasted my money on this. In case there are others out there who feel the same way, this is your warning. Do an IMDb keyword search on "actual-animal-killed" if you want to know what other films to avoid. Hint: if it was filmed in Spain, Mexico, USA pre-1965, Korea, Philippines or China, you can bet the animal cruelty/killing on screen was real.

Armand Not great but beautiful. A story of a time. Delicate hush. Nostalgic and dramatic. A painter as axis. A priest as pray. And a young lady for who an error was damnation. A child, a revolution and some paintings in a old-new Spain. A fairy tale in a very lost room. And nostalgic air. A film of nuances who eats colors. About ghosts of every soul. About love and its forms in the waters of fear. About games and expectations., About a world, cruel, fake but interesting. A shadows collection. Small gestures and tasty words. A duel, very intelligent duel Javier Bardem - Stellan Starsgard. Emotions and images. And Milos Forman as director. Must see! As small remember and talk with ordinaries ghosts of your, Goya or a woman with child.

MLDinTN then the second half of this movie is hard to follow. I got the first part with the Spanish Inquistion, but the film skipped many years forward with the French ruling Spain. The movie does little to fill you in on what happened, and I don't remember much about it. So, the movie gets confusing then. The movie begins when Ines, daughter of a rich merchant, is accused of Judiasm by the church, specifically Father Lorenzo. She is put to the Question and forced to confess. Even her family's wealth can not buy her out of prison. Her father forces Lorenzo to sign a confession saying he is the offspring of a chimp, in hopes of getting Ines released. All it does is give a reason for the church to condemn Lorenzo, who runs off to France.Then, the movie skips many years, and the French Revolution is in full force. Ines is released from prison. It was very good make up work to make Natalie Portman look that tore up. She finds her family dead and seeks Goya for her help. She tells him she had a child in prison. Goya sets up a meeting between her and Lorenzo, whom is now with the French and in power. He is the father. Goya sees the daughter and tells Lorenzo, whom decides it's best to send her off to America, so no one will find out. But before his plans get carried out, the British join the Spainish, and Spain reclaims power and he is now the persecuted. That part is not well told in the film. It's like the film shows this to happen in a day.FINAL VERDICT: The movie is good until it skips many years in time after the Inquistion, then the movie expects you to understand what is going on. It just got too confusing to me then.