CLASSIC PAINTERS: “Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti.” / "Goya's Ghosts.” / “Klimt.”

“Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti” (2017, Tubi) French autobiographical drama, focused on French painter Paul Gauguin's affair with a younger lady in Tahiti.



       The direction of Edouard Deluc is quietly kneading and doesn’t divert to moralism or high-handed statements. Credits as well to co-writers Etienne Comar and Thomas Lilti. This is simply Monsieur Gauguin: Flawed, vulnerable, stubborn, brilliant. And yes Vincent Cassel as Paul is definitely one of the best in French cinema. 🎥💻📽


“Goya's Ghosts” (2006, Plex) biographical drama about Spanish painter Francisco Goya. Directed by Milos Forman (d. 2018), the genius behind “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” (1975), “Amadeus” (1984), “The People vs. Larry Flynt” (1996), and many others. 

       And the leads Javier Bardem (as Lorenzo Casamares), Natalie Portman (as Ines Balbatua) and Stellan Skarsgard as Goya are no-brainers. 



       But this movie disappoints! It started on an intriguingly powerful note and then simply lost itself till the end. Must be because Mr Forman was already tired? “Ghosts…” was his final directorial feature before his death in 2018; 86 years old.

       Was it the screenplay? Milos wrote it with Jean-Claude Carriere (d. 2021), who penned the splendid “The Return of Martin Guerre” (1983) and “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (1988). Although the historical setting of the film is authentic, the story about Senor Goya trying to defend a model (Ines) is fictional, as are the characters Brother Lorenzo and the Bilbatúa family.

       Maybe it was both a screenplay flaw and directorial fault? Yet the film is still somehow worth a 2+ hour couch time because of the exemplary acting of Javier, Natalie and Stellan. Although Randy Quaid as King Charles IV is awfully clownish. 🎥💻📽




“Klimt” (2006, Amazon Prime) Austrian biographical film about the life of the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt (1862–1918). Fine cast: John Malkovich as Gustav Klimt, with Stephen Dillane and Saffron Burrows. But this lumbering walk, directed by Raul Ruiz from a screenplay by Gilbert Adair, isn’t fine at all.

       The entire exercise is a calculated stroll in a spineless book. Frigid, static, and lifeless. That’s all there is to it + the naked women. 🎥💻📽


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