Synopsis
No one knows what trauma was experienced by the great Spanish painter Francisco Goya during his 40s but it left him profoundly deaf and dramatically changed both his style and the subjects he painted. The joyful, colourful celebrations of the Spanish people gave way to pictures of dark fantasy and bitingsatires on the corruption and social injustice of the time. His series of etchings The Disasters of War, which he produced when the French invaded Spain, still stand as the most terrible indictment of man's inhumanity to man. It seems as if his deafness sharpened his insight into his subjects. Leslie Megahey's film portrait of the twists and turns of Goya's life was first broadcast in 1972. It was made during a Spanish fiesta and uses a real street theatre performance, as well as the words of Goya and his contemporaries, to reflect different aspects of the artist's life. Now revised.