Forman's first film in 7 years is an absorbing, powerful and stylish (if rather drab-looking) melodrama against a backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition. The award-winning Czech director wisely called on Jean-Claude Carriere (with whom he had already collaborated on TAKING OFF [1971] and VALMONT [1989]) to co-write the script, given the latter's prevalence for subjects relating to religious criticism and political upheaval.
The plot is filled with ironic twists, which sees protagonist Javier Bardem go from mild-mannered priest to Grand Inquisitor, lecher, fugitive, wealthy family-man, revolutionary, and finally martyr; still, his heavily-accented English delivery becomes unintentionally funny - making the rugged and handsome international star come off like Anthony Quinn's dimwitted prizefighter in REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (1962)! The remainder of the principal cast is well-chosen: Natalie Portman in a dual role of mother and daughter; Stellan Skarsgard as the painter Francisco Goya, who becomes embroiled in the numerous intrigues; Randy Quaid as a violin-playing King of Spain ousted by Napoleon's troops; and Michel Lonsdale as Bardem's superior, a high church official.
Perhaps the best moments in the film are: the chilling dinner sequence in which the sanctimonious Bardem is kidnapped and tortured into signing a humiliating confession note by Portman's family (whom he has 'put to the question', imprisoned and seduced) so as to prove the unreliability of the Inquisition's methods of persuasion; and the finale in which Bardem, convicted as a traitor to both country and church, is painfully executed (a public 'event' much like Oliver Reed's climactic burning at the stake in Ken Russell's THE DEVILS [1971]).
The plot is filled with ironic twists, which sees protagonist Javier Bardem go from mild-mannered priest to Grand Inquisitor, lecher, fugitive, wealthy family-man, revolutionary, and finally martyr; still, his heavily-accented English delivery becomes unintentionally funny - making the rugged and handsome international star come off like Anthony Quinn's dimwitted prizefighter in REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT (1962)! The remainder of the principal cast is well-chosen: Natalie Portman in a dual role of mother and daughter; Stellan Skarsgard as the painter Francisco Goya, who becomes embroiled in the numerous intrigues; Randy Quaid as a violin-playing King of Spain ousted by Napoleon's troops; and Michel Lonsdale as Bardem's superior, a high church official.
Perhaps the best moments in the film are: the chilling dinner sequence in which the sanctimonious Bardem is kidnapped and tortured into signing a humiliating confession note by Portman's family (whom he has 'put to the question', imprisoned and seduced) so as to prove the unreliability of the Inquisition's methods of persuasion; and the finale in which Bardem, convicted as a traitor to both country and church, is painfully executed (a public 'event' much like Oliver Reed's climactic burning at the stake in Ken Russell's THE DEVILS [1971]).