Ravishing ‘Goya’ Film Is Haunting Journey Through Final Memories of Artist by Max Alvarez In films such as "Carmen," "Flamenco" and "Tango," Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura emphasized theatrical techniques when creating his cinematic canvases. Saura’s ravishing new "Goya in Bordeaux (Goya en Burdeyos)" continues his theatrical experimentation but on a more fully realized level. The methods used by the director and his remarkable Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (this is their fourth collaboration) are striking examples of how the streamlined symbolism of classic stagecraft can effectively be transposed and reinterpreted for the screen. This haunting journey through the final, dark memories of artist Francisco de Goya y Lucientes is what a film about a great artist ought to be: stunningly designed, cinematically adventurous, and aesthetically challenging. It is all the more frustrating that such an exquisite film is faring poorly on the nation’s art-house circuit this fall. Paco Rabal plays Goya during his 82nd and final year when the former court painter for Charles III and Charles IV was living in Bordeaux in exile. Goya is reconstructing for his daughter (Daphne Fernández) the principal occurrences in his life, each randomly chosen event unfolding in a dreamlike state emanating from the mind of the troubled genius. Photographing "Goya in Bordeaux" in a system called Univisium 1:2 (which projects an anamorphic image but with black borders on both sides), Storaro adapts and improves upon a technique he used previously in Francis Coppola’s overstylized "One From the Heart." Several sets employ transparent sliding panels enabling walls to give the appearance of fading in and out and thus contributing to a perfect fluidity in the film’s staging of Goya’s memories. Many of the Saura-Storaro sequences are a triumph of conception: elderly Goya wandering the streets of Bordeaux in his bedshirt, haunted by figures from his past; the innards of an animal morphing into Goya’s face; a richly Technicolored soundstage rendering of Goya’s Disasters of War engravings. On a more personal level, Maribel Verdú gives the proceedings a sensual jolt as the artist’s mistress, the Duchess of Alba. The only true instance where the literal interpretations of Goya’s art threaten to turn to kitsch is in a scene where the dark paintings adorning the walls of the artist’s country estate come to life in the form of masked figures enveloping the tormented painter. Fortunately, such errors in judgment are infrequent. "Goya in Bordeaux" succeeds in penetrating the impenetrable and giving movement to immovable images that have been etched in our cultural psyche since the great man’s death in 1828. In Castilian Spanish with English subtitles, "Goya in Bordeaux" is now playing in Washington, D.C., at the Loews Cineplex Odeon Janus 3. A Compelling ‘Affair’ In one of the more prudish acts by a distributor in recent memory, Fine Line Features has taken it upon itself to rechristen Frédéric Fonteyne’s "A Pornographic Affair (Une Liaison Pornographique)" "An Affair of Love" for the U.S. market. It has even gone so far as to invent a bogus "original" title ("Un Liaison d’Amour") in an attempt to confuse critics such as myself. Nice try, folks. Fine Line apparently feared some American newspapers would refuse advertising for a film with "pornographic" in its title, despite the picture’s "R" rating. There is probably some truth to this, but it is nonetheless discouraging that the foreign-language film market would submit to pre-censorship pressures as the Hollywood studio releases often do. The whole point to this co-production from Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland is that there is nothing remotely pornographic about the six-month affair in question. It is true that the origins of the sexual relationship between the central figures (sensitively and honestly played by Nathalie Baye and the Spanish actor Sergi Lopez) begin with the woman placing a personal ad in a sex magazine. But what follows could hardly be considered tawdry or exploitative. Although not disinterested in the sexual characteristics of the Baye-Lopez affair, Fonteyne is compelled by the mental emotions of the situation. In the beginning, the delicate widescreen camera remains in the garish red velvet corridor of the transient hotel where the unidentified Parisian couple engages in their weekly trysts. Something memorable is taking place behind the door, but we are not privy to it, and the lovers are unusually coy about the matter when an unseen interviewer queries them later on. Despite agreeing not to exchange names and personal information about each other, the couple cannot avoid attempting to personalize and romanticize what is supposed to be a purely physical relationship. In that sense, Fine Line’s tamer title seems thoroughly appropriate. Thoughtfully and economically written by Phillipe Blasband, "A Pornographic Affair" draws us in more deeply as it progresses. In an era of overlong features, the film’s 80-minute running time is a welcome reminder of how much a story can accomplish within a fixed length. It is also refreshing to see a picture whose main character is a woman of middle age enjoying the pleasures of erotic love with a man of younger years. In French with English subtitles, "A Pornographic Affair/An Affair of Love" is now playing in Washington, D.C., at the Loews Cineplex Odeon Dupont Circle. Resnais at National Gallery "Alain Resnais’ film is quite possibly the most controversial first feature since ‘Citizen Kane.’ It has aroused the same sort of excitement and partisanship; its place in film history seems no less firmly assured." Nowadays a critic would be reluctant to heap such outrageous praise on a new motion picture for fear of appearing overzealous (not to mention foolish) later on. But the passage of 40 years has only confirmed the above statement from a Monthly Film Bulletin reviewer of Alain Resnais’ masterpiece "Hiroshima Mon Amour." This electrifying 1959 entry in France’s Nouvelle Vague/New Wave will be part of the National Gallery of Art’s film series "Alain Resnais—Then and Now," which offers eight provocative works from Nov. 10 through Dec. 9. The series is being presented in association with the American Cinematheque, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of France. A co-production between France and Japan, "Hiroshima" was and remains a haunting, chilling, mystifying, and beautiful study of humanity in the wake of the unthinkable. The mesmerizing Emmanuèle Riva stars as a French film actress who is having an affair with a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) while filming an anti-war movie on location in Hiroshima five years after the atomic bombings. Their relationship triggers harrowing memories—the horrifying newsreels of Japanese radiation victims and of the woman’s ill-fated romance with a German soldier during the Nazi occupation. With the stream-of-consciousness dialogue of screenwriter Marguerite Duras and the harshly sensual black-and-white photography of Sacha Vierny, documentary filmmaker Resnais’ foray into narrative features proved immediately revolutionary in its technique. The editing of Henri Colpi, Jasmine Chasney, and Anne Sarraute was the first to employ "flash frames" and abrupt transitions for flashbacks. Their innovations have been endlessly imitated, but the profound and devastating power of "Hiroshima Mon Amour" has proven inimitable. In French and Japanese with English subtitles, "Hiroshima Mon Amour" will screen at the National Gallery of Art on Nov. 10 and 11 at 2:30 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call (202) 842-6799. Jewish Film Festival Begins The 11th Washington Jewish Film Festival will be held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 10 and features an ambitious and highly diverse program of features, documentaries, and short films from around the world. The festival begins with the Italian feature "The Sky Falls," directed by Andrea and Antonio Frazzi. Based on Lorenza Mazzeti’s autobiographical novel, the film stars Isabella Rossellini and Jeroen Krabbè as a Tuscany couple whose peaceful life is upset by the violence of World War II. In Italian with English subtitles, "The Sky Falls" will screen on Nov. 30, 7 p.m. at the Lincoln Theatre. Tickets for this special event and reception are $20. For information and advance tickets to the festival, call (800) 494-8497 or visit the Web sites www.wjff.org or www.boxofficetickets.com. Max Alvarez is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.