Goya : Awakened in a Dream [VHS] Overview
Directed by Richard Mozer, Goya: Awakened in a Dream is a powerful portrait of the enigmatic artist who in his old age maintained a youthful rebelliousness at heart. Goya, one of Spain's greatest painters, created a wide and varied range of work. He was at times a painter, a cartoonist, a portrait artist and a satirist. His Caprices were the first social, political, moral and religious satires ever created, oddly at the same time that Goya painted his most conventional portraits, including religious works for churches. Goya went on to defy the king and the inquisition, abandoning the royal court in favour of a simple life in the countryside. His landmark Black Paintings bridged the gap between traditional court portraiture to modern, personal interpretive works. "The challenge of this film was to do justice to Goya's art which can be very dark and contemplative while conveying the mystery and wonder of his paintings to children who might otherwise find his work a little scary," revealed director Richard Mozer.
Created and produced by David Devine and Richard Mozer from a screenplay by award-winning playwright and screenwriter Michael Maclennan, Goya: Awakened in a Dream was shot in Valtice in southern Moravia in the Czech Republic. Moravia is home to over 80 castles and palaces built since the turn of the 15th century and is also where several of Devine Entertaimment's Composers Specials were filmed. The castle in Goya: Awakened in a Dream was built by an Italian architect and by Italian labourers. It is beautiful and strikingly similar to the palace in Madrid.
Goya become a court painter rather late in life, at the age of 43. He immediately added the "de" in front of his name to suggest aristocratic kinship. From then on, his future was assured, and he rose to even higher eminence. What Goya enjoyed the most was the study of people, showing them at their best and worst moments. He needed to make sense of life as it unfolded and thus he always had a crayon and notebook within reach. Goya seemed to have an endless capacity for joy. Even during the bleakest periods of his life, he continued to capture the colour of life and never lost his sense of humour. One of the saddest realities of his life is that though his wife gave birth to 12 children, only one survived. In his productive stretches, he worked with incredible speed, capturing ideas and visions. Without Leocadia, he might have even forgotten to eat.
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