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Film / Goya's Ghosts

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Goya's Ghosts is a 2006 biographical drama film, directed by Miloš Forman (his final directorial feature before his death in 2018), and written by him and Jean-Claude Carrière. The film stars Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman, and Stellan Skarsgård, and was filmed on location in Spain during late 2005. The film was written, produced, and performed in English although it is a Spanish production.

Although the historical setting of the film is authentic, the story about Francisco de Goya trying to defend a model is fictional, as are the characters Brother Lorenzo and the Bilbatúa family.


This film provides examples of:

  • Asshole Victim: Lorenzo is executed. Given that he was a corrupt rapist who tried to send his Child by Rape into exile while leaving her mother to rot in prison, he deserved it.
  • The Church: The Catholic Church.
  • Creepy Catholicism: The Spanish Inquisition. The Church tortures people.
  • Downer Ending: Lorenzo is executed (though he deserves it), Ines has gone insane, the Corrupt Church is back in power, and Ferdinand VII, widely regarded as Spain's worst ruler ever, has his ass on the throne.
  • Evil Jesuit: Lorenzo.
  • Knight Templar: The Inquisitors that lock Ines up do it because they think she's Jewish, and appear to never even consider the possibility that she just doesn't like pork.
  • Locked in the Dungeon: Ines is locked in the dungeons and tortured.
  • Fictional Painting: Goya's portrait of Lorenzo.
  • Pet the Dog: Downplayed. Napoleon shuts down the Spanish Inquisition and releases its remaining prisoners, including Ines, but his soldiers also killed her parents during the invasion and they continue to commit other atrocities against the Spanish people.
  • Prison Changes People: Ines' mind and body are warped after being released from prison. Her teeth are dirty and her face looks tired.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Lorenzo sees himself as this.

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