Goya's Ghosts (2006)

.

Some things
never change:
greed, ambition, violence

Despite the fact that Francisco de Goya (Stellan Skarsgård)has been commissioned to paint the portraits of Spain's King Carlos IV (Randy Quaid) and his wife and some of the Church leaders, including the monk Lorenzo Casamares (Javier Bardem), Goya is the focus of a witchhunt lead my none other than the loathesome Casamares. Some of Goya's interpretive prints have been judged to be "demonic filth" and he's labeled a heretic. The Church, striving to return to "the God-fearing ways of the past," dictates much in this era.

Targetted even more than Goya is his favorite model, Ines Bilbatúa (Natalie Portman), who is accused of practicing Jewish rituals simply because she doesn't care for pork. Ines' father Tomás Bilbatúa (José Luis Gómez), a very wealthy man, tries to curry favor with Casamares to find and release his daughter who has been imprisoned. When Bilbatúa finds his daughter has been tortured to force a false confession, Casamares is put to "The Question" by Bilbatúa in the same way that Ines was tortured.
Years later, when Napoleon's army liberates Spain from the horrors of the Inquisition, a worn and misshapen Ines is released from the prison dungeon and recruits Goya to help her find the child she bore while in prison.

Co-written and directed by Milos Forman.

Run time: 1 hour, 54 minutes.

Rated R for violence, disturbing images, some sexual content and nudity.

My personal rating: B+