Goya's Ghosts, (Cert 15, 114 mins)
Starring: Natalie Portman, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård, Blanca Portillo, Randy Quaid, Michael Lonsdale
Directed by Milos Forman
 DIRECTOR Milos Forman has apparently waited many years to make this film. Whether it is quite the epic he was expecting is a matter of debate, but there is no doubt that it is beautifully mounted and splendidly acted.
It is, however, a rather depressing movie - a dark story of torture and lost innocence in 18th-century Spain.
Beginning in 1792 (the story moves forward 15 years at one point), it is the tale of the Spanish Inquisition and one particular victim, a young girl named Ines.
Chief villain is Brother Lorzenzo, a member of the Inquisition determined to deal with even the slightest insult to the Catholic religion. When Ines declines to eat any of the suckling pig offered to her in a tavern, she is immediately accused of being a secret Jew and taken in to be "put to the question".
That means she is strung up naked with her arms bound behind her, and tortured to confess. Eventually, she gives a false confession and is locked away. The artist Goya (Stellan Skarsgard) has just completed her portrait and her rich father asks for his help in obtaining her release. So he goes to Brother Lorenzo, who vaguely suggests he will see what he can do but is secretly sexually abusing Ines in her cell. Then the French invade and finally the British liberate and the whole of Spanish society turns topsyturvy. Forman captures the gritty and opulent world of 18th-century Spain expertly, bringing some lovely performances from his cast, notably Javier Bardem as Brother Lorenzo, Michael Lonsdale as the laid-back head of the Inquisition and, most importantly, Natalie Portman as Ines. She has a giant acting task, having to look beautiful, then battered and finally ugly and deformed when released from prison. She
also plays her own prostitute daughter in the later stages of the story. The main problem for many will be the lack of any stand-out scenes and, despite the military upheaval, no real battle scenes. But the story is an intriguing one, rather like A Tale of Two Cities or The Count of Monte Cristo with its story of false imprisonment and its eventual consequences. It is not a happy film - it starts with torture and ends with a garrotting - but Forman captures a moment in history quite admirably. | 
