{ "id": "epnqwtzkv8", "slug": "goya-in-bordeaux", "title": "Goya in Bordeaux", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary", "label": "Documentary and biographical films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary.biopics-by-profession-arts", "label": "Biographical films of musicians, artists, and writers", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary.biopics-by-profession-arts" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary.biopics-by-profession-arts.biographical-films-about-visual-and-perf", "label": "Biographical films about visual and performing artists", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary.biopics-by-profession-arts.biographical-films-about-visual-and-perf" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Documentary and biographical films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary", "label": "Documentary and biographical films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Goya in Bordeaux (Goya en Burdeos) is Carlos Saura's 1999 Spanish-Italian biopic of Francisco de Goya, starring Francisco Rabal and José Coronado, shot by Vittorio Storaro, winner of five Goya awards and Montreal festival prizes.", "snippet": "Goya in Bordeaux (Goya en Burdeos) is Carlos Saura's 1999 Spanish-Italian biopic of Francisco de Goya, starring Francisco Rabal and José Coronado, shot by Vittorio Storaro, winner of five Goya awards and Montreal festival prizes.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.documentary.biopics-by-profession-arts.biographical-films-about-visual-and-perf", "markdown": "# Goya in Bordeaux\n\n**Goya in Bordeaux** (Spanish: *Goya en Burdeos*) is a 1999 Spanish-Italian biographical drama film written and directed by Carlos Saura about the painter Francisco de Goya, depicting the deaf and ailing artist in his final exile in Bordeaux, France, as he recalls the decisive events of his life to his daughter Rosario[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/goya-en-burdeos/) • [2](https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/cine-de-siempre/historia-nuestro-cine-goya-burdeos/3550378/). It was Saura's thirtieth feature film[3](https://idus.us.es/bitstreams/c5b7e897-e6ee-4b0a-a33d-cfcb8b5fdaa2/download).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writer | Carlos Saura, who also wrote the screenplay[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/goya-en-burdeos/) |\n| Production | Spain and Italy, 1999; produced by Lolafilms and Italian International Film[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/goya-en-burdeos/) |\n| Lead cast | Francisco Rabal as the old Goya, José Coronado as the young Goya, Maribel Verdú as the Duchess of Alba, Eulalia Ramón as Leocadia, Dafne Fernández as Rosario[4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/goya-in-bordeaux-2000) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography Vittorio Storaro; editing Julia Juaniz; art direction Pierre-Louis Thévenet; costumes Pedro Moreno[5](https://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/hojas/goya-en-burdeos.htm) |\n| Awards | 5 Goya awards from 10 nominations at the 14th edition (2000), including Best Actor for Rabal and Best Cinematography for Storaro[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/goya-en-burdeos/) |\n| Festival honors | Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and best artistic contribution at the 1999 Montreal World Film Festival; European Film Award for best cinematography in 2000[6](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D35967.html) |\n| Release | World premiere at Montreal in September 1999; Spanish theatrical release on 12 November 1999[7](https://elpais.com/diario/1999/09/05/cultura/936482407_850215.html) • [8](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-35967/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and structure\n\nThe film is set in 1828 in Bordeaux, where the 82-year-old Goya lives in exile with his companion Leocadia Zorrilla de Weiss and their daughter Rosario[9](https://www.timeout.com/movies/goya-in-bordeaux). Spanish accounts describe the exile as a flight from the oppressive government of Ferdinand VII[2](https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/cine-de-siempre/historia-nuestro-cine-goya-burdeos/3550378/). Deaf, ill, and still painting at night, Goya reconstructs the main events of his existence for Rosario in conversations and recollections[2](https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/cine-de-siempre/historia-nuestro-cine-goya-burdeos/3550378/).\n\n**Memory as structure.** The telling is not chronological; it moves like memory itself, in flashbacks triggered by conversations with Rosario, terrible headaches, and the confusion of old age[10](https://pulseofcinema.com/en/film/goya-in-bordeaux/). The episodes recalled include his ambitious youth at the court of Charles IV, his relationship with the Duchess of Alba, the illness that left him deaf at 46, and his discovery, before Velázquez's work, of how he wanted to paint[9](https://www.timeout.com/movies/goya-in-bordeaux) • [11](https://www.justwatch.com/es/pelicula/goya-in-bordeaux). As the dying Goya remembers, the memories transform into drawings and paintings, so that the film becomes a walk through his artistic output[11](https://www.justwatch.com/es/pelicula/goya-in-bordeaux) • [5](https://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/hojas/goya-en-burdeos.htm).\n\nThe Instituto Cervantes study notes stresses that the film is not about the great public events of Goya's life: it does not treat his court portraits, his creative influences (which the young painter, played by Coronado, names as Velázquez, Rembrandt, and nature), or a reconstruction of his oeuvre. Its subject is instead the last years in which the painter found affection and understanding with Leocadia Zorrilla and their daughter Rosario[5](https://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/hojas/goya-en-burdeos.htm).\n\n## Visual approach\n\nSaura built the film as a series of staged tableaux rather than a conventional biography. Working with cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, he played with light and color as if the viewer were inside a dream or Goya's soul, moving through impossible settings with walls that turn transparent, a deliberately unreal meadow of San Isidro, and a war landscape choreographed by the theater company La Fura dels Baus[12](https://www.aceprensa.com/resenas-cine-series/goya-en-burdeos/). The Cervantes commentary describes the result as a sensorial immersion in a disoriented memory, where present and past, art and life, speak on the same plane through Storaro's camera work, Pierre-Louis Thévenet's production design, and the Fura dels Baus contribution, which turned the painter's memory into a ghostly space[5](https://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/hojas/goya-en-burdeos.htm).\n\nRoger Ebert, reviewing for the *Chicago Sun-Times* in 2000, described the film as lushly photographed and grandly conceived but judged that it works best for viewers already fascinated by Goya, calling it more a study and a visual aid to the painter's work than a stand-alone drama[4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/goya-in-bordeaux-2000).\n\n## Origins in Saura's career\n\nGoya had been present in Saura's work from the beginning. His first short film, *El pequeño río Manzanares* (1956), shot in 16 mm when he was eighteen, took Goya's canvas *La pradera de San Isidro* as its model, and later films such as *Llanto por un bandido* (1963), *[Mamá cumple cien años](https://www.edgepedia.org/mama-cumple-cien-anos)* (1979), and, explicitly, *Goya 3 de mayo* (2021) quoted the painter's works directly[5](https://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/hojas/goya-en-burdeos.htm). The critical and commercial success of *Tango* (1998), Saura's immediately preceding film and his third collaboration with Storaro, renewed producer Andrés Vicente Gómez's interest in a project about the painter that Saura had pitched years earlier[5](https://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/hojas/goya-en-burdeos.htm).\n\n**Dedication and inspiration.** Saura dedicated the film to his brother, the painter Antonio Saura, who had died shortly before[3](https://idus.us.es/bitstreams/c5b7e897-e6ee-4b0a-a33d-cfcb8b5fdaa2/download) • [13](https://elpais.com/diario/1999/11/05/cultura/941756410_850215.html). He also stated that the film was inspired by [Luis Buñuel](https://www.edgepedia.org/luis-bunuel), a fellow Aragonese who had himself wanted to bring Goya's life to the screen and had developed an uncompleted commissioned project to do so[13](https://elpais.com/diario/1999/11/05/cultura/941756410_850215.html) • [14](https://www.museobbaa.com/actividad/goya-burdeos-carlos-saura-1999/). At the Montreal premiere Saura described his aim as reflecting the thoughts of an aged and confused yet lucid mind, a man of 82 marked, as he saw him, by three women: his lover Leocadia, his daughter Rosario, and above all the ghost of the Duchess of Alba[7](https://elpais.com/diario/1999/09/05/cultura/936482407_850215.html).\n\n## Cast\n\nFrancisco Rabal, one of Spain's most popular screen actors, played the old Goya; he had already worked with Saura on *Llanto por un bandido* in the 1960s and had embodied the painter twice before[6](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D35967.html) • [14](https://www.museobbaa.com/actividad/goya-burdeos-carlos-saura-1999/). José Coronado plays Goya as a young man, sharing screen time with Rabal across the flashbacks[8](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-35967/). [Maribel Verdú](https://www.edgepedia.org/maribel-verdu) plays the Duchess of Alba, Eulalia Ramón plays Leocadia, and Dafne Fernández plays Rosario[4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/goya-in-bordeaux-2000). The supporting cast includes Josep Maria Pou as Godoy and Joaquín Climent as Moratín[15](https://www.mdblist.com/movie/mr78-goya-in-bordeaux?cache=1). Rabal died in August 2001, while flying over Bordeaux, the city associated with Goya's last years[6](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D35967.html) • [16](https://elpais.com/cultura/2026-10-22/paco-rabal-la-memoria-de-una-leyenda-a-traves-de-su-propia-voz.html).\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nAt the 14th [Goya Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-awards) in 2000 the film received ten nominations and won five prizes: Best Actor (Francisco Rabal), Best Cinematography (Vittorio Storaro), Best Art Direction (Pierre-Louis Thévenet), Best Costume Design (Pedro Moreno), and Best Makeup and Hairstyles (José Quetglás, Susana Sánchez, and Blanca Sánchez)[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/goya-en-burdeos/). At the 1999 Montreal World Film Festival it won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the award for best artistic contribution, and in 2000 Storaro received the European Film Award for best cinematography[6](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D35967.html) • [17](https://www.inter-film.org/filmarchiv/1999/goya-en-burdeos).\n\nIn the United States, Sony Pictures Classics released the film wide on September 15, 2000, and it grossed $716.6 thousand at the box office[18](https://wwe.rfhthjmb.dns-dynamic.net/m/goya_in_bordeaux). On the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer it holds 54 percent from 26 reviews, with an audience score of 71 percent from more than 500 ratings[18](https://wwe.rfhthjmb.dns-dynamic.net/m/goya_in_bordeaux). Runtime listings differ among sources: the Instituto Cervantes gives 106 minutes, while other catalogs list 104 or 100 minutes[5](https://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/hojas/goya-en-burdeos.htm) • [19](https://filmotecadegalicia.xunta.gal/es/filmes/goya-en-burdeos).\n\n## References\n\n1. [Goya en Burdeos, Premios Goya (14th edition film page)](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/goya-en-burdeos/)\n2. [Goya en Burdeos, Historia de nuestro cine, RTVE](https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/cine-de-siempre/historia-nuestro-cine-goya-burdeos/3550378/)\n3. [Goya en Burdeos, el arte (Universidad de Sevilla, idus.us.es)](https://idus.us.es/bitstreams/c5b7e897-e6ee-4b0a-a33d-cfcb8b5fdaa2/download)\n4. [Goya In Bordeaux, review by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/goya-in-bordeaux-2000)\n5. [Goya en Burdeos (1999), Hojas de sala, Centro Virtual Cervantes](https://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/cine/hojas/goya-en-burdeos.htm)\n6. [Goya en Burdeos, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D35967.html)\n7. [Saura elige Montreal para el estreno mundial de \"Goya en Burdeos\", El País](https://elpais.com/diario/1999/09/05/cultura/936482407_850215.html)\n8. [Goya en Burdeos, SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-35967/)\n9. [Goya in Bordeaux, Time Out film review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/goya-in-bordeaux)\n10. [Goya in Bordeaux (1999), Pulse of Cinema](https://pulseofcinema.com/en/film/goya-in-bordeaux/)\n11. [Goya en Burdeos, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/es/pelicula/goya-in-bordeaux)\n12. [Goya en Burdeos. Sinopsis y crítica, ACEprensa](https://www.aceprensa.com/resenas-cine-series/goya-en-burdeos/)\n13. [Carlos Saura señala que 'Goya en Burdeos' está inspirada en Buñuel, El País](https://elpais.com/diario/1999/11/05/cultura/941756410_850215.html)\n14. [Goya en Burdeos (Carlos Saura, 1999), Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias](https://www.museobbaa.com/actividad/goya-burdeos-carlos-saura-1999/)\n15. [Goya in Bordeaux, MDBList](https://www.mdblist.com/movie/mr78-goya-in-bordeaux?cache=1)\n16. [Paco Rabal, la memoria de una leyenda, El País](https://elpais.com/cultura/2026-10-22/paco-rabal-la-memoria-de-una-leyenda-a-traves-de-su-propia-voz.html)\n17. [Goya en Burdeos, INTERFILM archive](https://www.inter-film.org/filmarchiv/1999/goya-en-burdeos)\n18. [Goya in Bordeaux, Rotten Tomatoes](https://wwe.rfhthjmb.dns-dynamic.net/m/goya_in_bordeaux)\n19. [Goya en Burdeos, Filmoteca de Galicia](https://filmotecadegalicia.xunta.gal/es/filmes/goya-en-burdeos)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Documentary and biographical films › Biographical films of musicians, artists, and writers › Biographical films about visual and performing artists*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-in-bordeaux", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-in-bordeaux.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Goya in Bordeaux\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-in-bordeaux. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Goya in Bordeaux](https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-in-bordeaux)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-in-bordeaux](https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-in-bordeaux). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Goya in Bordeaux\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-in-bordeaux. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Goya in Bordeaux is Carlos Saura's 1999 Spanish-Italian biopic of Francisco de Goya, starring Francisco Rabal and José Coronado, shot by Vittorio Storaro, winner of five Goya awards and Montreal festival prizes." }