At the cinema in the footsteps of Goya

In the ensemble documentary dedicated to Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes – a sort of love letter to art and beauty that the French screenwriter and writer Jean-Claude Carrière, who died during the filming of the film, left in the hands of José Luis López-Linares – there is all the rich and sinuous work of the Spanish genius.
After debuting at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, Goya’s shadow arrives at the cinema on 6, 7, 8 March (here the complete list of cinemas).
The docu-film directed by José Luis López-Linares (the director of the blockbuster film Bosch. The garden of dreams) and written by Jean-Claude Carrière and Cristina Otero Roth brings a team of twelve specialists from all disciplines to the set, including Julian Schnabel, to unveil the work of one of the giants of art history.

The production marks the reopening of the 2023 season of NEXO Digital and Great Art in Cinema.
Astute storyteller, exceptional portrait painter, ruthless observer of vices, human paradoxes and modern hypocrisy, Goya will present himself to the public with his masterpieces, from To vest the house and the naked maja al 3 maggio 1808, a Saturn devouring his children passing through the famous series of Whims where the painter indulges in the themes of madness, witchcraft and the most unconscious nightmares, revealing a mind in constant search. A research that represents Goya’s most powerful figure, starting from his childhood spent in Zaragoza, where the urge to become an artist makes its way for the first time, up to the “pinturas negras” of the Quinta del Sordo, the residence on the doorstep of Madrid where he retired in dramatic isolation before reaching Bordeaux, where he died in 1828.

In a context that marks the end of a century, a crucial passage between old and new, poised between ancient obsessions and new indomitable ghosts moves the desecrating Spanish painter whose fantastic creatures are still imbued with the themes of revolution, carnival, addressed to the preconstituted order.
Through this investigation of worlds upside down, the hierarchies between servants and masters, between men and animals, between male and female are reversed. At the head of the composite procession of experts, selected by the director to investigate the infinite facets of the artist, is Jean-Claude Carrière (1931-2021), historical friend and collaborator of the screenwriter, writer, actor and director Luis Buñuel, who López -Linares was lucky enough to film a year before his disappearance, following in the footsteps of Goya with him.

From the film The Shadow of Goya | Courtesy Nexo Digital

In this journey of discovery and unveiling that López-Linares was able to carry out working side by side with the writer, each of the interviewees sheds light in his own way on an artist of incredible expressive richness, bringing together the fragments of a puzzle that links culture and emotions , cinema and painting.
In the company of an otolaryngologist we will also try to trace the consequences of the painter’s deafness in the paintings. Rather than preferring a chronological itinerary, the docu-film prefers to range between works from different periods with which Goya unmasks the vices and hypocrisies of his era.

Goya’s shadow is a Mondex Films, Zampa Audiovisual, López Li Films, Fado Filmes, Milonga Productions production. Great Art at the Cinema is an original and exclusive project by Nexo Digital.
For 2023, Grande Arte al Cinema is distributed exclusively for Italy by Nexo Digital with the media partners Radio Capital, Sky Arte, MYmovies.it and in collaboration with Abbonamento Musei.

Still from the film The Shadow of Goya | Courtesy © Lopez-Li Films

Read also:
• My journey with Goya and Jean-Claude Carrière