"Goya's Ghosts"

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

So, so much potential in this story, but honestly, I think it just needed more time. Running at a lean 113 minutes, there was HARDLY enough time to give each character their time to develop or to find any resolution at the end (an awkward and abrupt ending I might ad).

 

The cinematography was great, except for some strange candle flares that got distracting. Skarsgard was great, Portman was a tad ridiculous and Bardem was magical as ever. It was also interesting to see Randy Quaid in his role.

 

But, so much goes wrong in the editing of the film, that I'm wondering how much was cut out. It starts out so charming and intense with fantastic character development, and then "15 Years Later" everything goes haywire.

 

Did I mention the incredibly intrusive score?

[Max Jacoby]

The cinematography was great, except for some strange candle flares that got distracting.

 

There is an article in the August issue of AC. It's shot on Cooke S4s and an Optimo.

 

I think even Natalie Portman's presence isn't enough to entice me to go see this film.

[Ignacio Aguilar]

I saw it a few months ago, when it was released in Spain. It bombed at the box-office.

 

I thought Javier Aguirresarobe -who is currently shooting for Woody Allen- has done better jobs in the past. I've read afterwards that he pulled the stock for certain scenes and I remember complaining about the overall lack of contrast, which made the images look too flat. I also felt that they relied too much on medium and close ups (lit by Kinos), probably because of budget restraints, and the whole production looked much cheaper than "Amadeus" of "Valmont" (both better films than "Goya's Ghosts" in every way).

[Tom Lowe]

Portman is the only possible draw for me to this one, but I'd rather wait to see her in Wong Kar Wai's Blueberry Nights, which is supposed to open in the US this fall.