Haunted by the Ghosts of Goya
(Spoiler warning)
I can only count a few scenes in movies I've seen which disturbed and moved me, and one of it was Ines Balbatua's (Natalie Portman) violent unwrapping from an innocent, rather happy, sheltered, captivating maiden into a broken, decayed, decrepit woman, snatched from her abode, malevolently accused, disgraced, humilated and rendered meaningless - like a flower plucked and left by the roadside, to be trampled - its fleshy, colored petals turning the color brown and green, mixing with mud and muck.
What is most disturbing is not that Ines was real, as she was not, but that an innumerable number of Ines Balbatuas could have lived, and/or died a cruel, wasted life because of wicked men of the cloak. As I write this, I recall Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and its sequel, El Filibusterismo which gave life to the, still unfulfilled, passion in me to learn the Spanish language if only to read these two novels in the original. Come to think of it, it is probably not far-fetched to think that the writers of Los Fantasmas de Goya (Goya's Ghosts), Miloš Forman and Jean-Claude Carrierre have been influenced by the Rizal novels.
Ines Balbatua is as sheltered, and as subduedly desired as Maria Clara who was also the only daughter of a very rich merchant who can afford to make generous contributions to the Church. While Rizal's artistic license was bridled by the sensibilities of his time, Los Fantasmas de Goya graphically depicted the plucking of Ines, her being put to "The Question," stark naked - devoid of her elaborate dress which so prettily she carried as she got off her carriage and knocked at the Church's imposing door. "The Question" scene indelibly etched in my memory what desnuda means. Ines was stripped not only of her clothes, but her honor. A prized possession of her family, she was no more than fresh meat, hanged and displayed in full view of men who, while clothed in cloaks, were nonetheless men. After confessing her "guilt," she was thrown naked and chained in the filthy, dank and miserable dungeon, amidst equally filthy, dank and miserable, err, beings: using the term "humans" would be an oxymoron.
The movie also unraveled what could have caused Maria Clara's insanity, prodding her to jump to her death, in the scene where Ines was defiled, which led her to being seduced by Padre Lorenzo (as scheming as Padre Salvi) whose modus operandi was a joint prayer not much unlike the confessions of Maria Clara's mother to Padre Damaso.
It took fifteen years after before Ines, literally, saw the light. Still, she remained in darkness. Incredible it may seem how she remained alive, this was adequately explained when it was revealed that she conceived: finding her child kept her hoping, it kept her wanting to stay alive. Contrary to the truth, she saw Lorenzo as her savior, as the only man in her life, her object of affection. All she wanted was to find her daughter and bring her to him. It is probably not difficult to imagine that all these years she loved him, he who brought upon her misery, being the one who prodded the Church to return to the use of "The Question," a method of extracting confession through hideous torture, to weed out heretics, defined at that time as protestants, jews, moslems. Ines paid dearly for her aversion to pork which caused her to be suspected as practising Judaism.
Scared, shamed and alone, Ines found comfort in Lorenzo's visits, bringing news of her family and praying with her. A good and true Lorenzo was her truth. What is real though is that, after she was freed, the child she found in the tavern was not hers, as her Alicia had fled the orphanage where she was brought after Ines gave birth, and she has since become a harlot. What is real though is that Lorenzo never wanted her to regain her senses, as the truth in her would disgrace him once more. He never wanted her to be reunited with her daughter who he even sought in order to bribe her to agree to exile herself away from Spain. She was not as naive as her mother, she screamed, and fled.
Ines' truth is not unlike the movie's Church's truth: that God would give you the strength and the will to endure pain if only to resist acceeding to their truth; that confessions obtained by torture are true. Pondering about it, it was really God who is put to The Question when he is taunted to avert an evil, so contrary to Jesus' commandment to love thy neighbor. Living in a society of freedom, where the mass is read in a known language by a priest who does not turn his back on the faithful, where the Word is at the tip of your fingers if not at the tip of your tongue, I cannot fathom how the Church then even thought of any justification for bringing hell on earth through those inquisitions. Possibly, only the belief that any pleasure is sin, and all rational thinking is whispered by the enemy could justify such atrocities.
What is the truth? Truth to them was that the sun revolves around the earth, and they will burn at stake anyone who attempts to disprove it. Truth to you may be feelings of affection towards someone who, if you can only peek into the future, would never love you back the same way you love him, ever. Truth to Ines may be a family with Lorenzo, an infant child, when the the truth is that Lorenzo is dead, and her child has long lost her innocence.
I can only count a few scenes in movies I've seen which disturbed and moved me, and one of it was Ines Balbatua's (Natalie Portman) violent unwrapping from an innocent, rather happy, sheltered, captivating maiden into a broken, decayed, decrepit woman, snatched from her abode, malevolently accused, disgraced, humilated and rendered meaningless - like a flower plucked and left by the roadside, to be trampled - its fleshy, colored petals turning the color brown and green, mixing with mud and muck.
What is most disturbing is not that Ines was real, as she was not, but that an innumerable number of Ines Balbatuas could have lived, and/or died a cruel, wasted life because of wicked men of the cloak. As I write this, I recall Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and its sequel, El Filibusterismo which gave life to the, still unfulfilled, passion in me to learn the Spanish language if only to read these two novels in the original. Come to think of it, it is probably not far-fetched to think that the writers of Los Fantasmas de Goya (Goya's Ghosts), Miloš Forman and Jean-Claude Carrierre have been influenced by the Rizal novels.
Ines Balbatua is as sheltered, and as subduedly desired as Maria Clara who was also the only daughter of a very rich merchant who can afford to make generous contributions to the Church. While Rizal's artistic license was bridled by the sensibilities of his time, Los Fantasmas de Goya graphically depicted the plucking of Ines, her being put to "The Question," stark naked - devoid of her elaborate dress which so prettily she carried as she got off her carriage and knocked at the Church's imposing door. "The Question" scene indelibly etched in my memory what desnuda means. Ines was stripped not only of her clothes, but her honor. A prized possession of her family, she was no more than fresh meat, hanged and displayed in full view of men who, while clothed in cloaks, were nonetheless men. After confessing her "guilt," she was thrown naked and chained in the filthy, dank and miserable dungeon, amidst equally filthy, dank and miserable, err, beings: using the term "humans" would be an oxymoron.
The movie also unraveled what could have caused Maria Clara's insanity, prodding her to jump to her death, in the scene where Ines was defiled, which led her to being seduced by Padre Lorenzo (as scheming as Padre Salvi) whose modus operandi was a joint prayer not much unlike the confessions of Maria Clara's mother to Padre Damaso.
It took fifteen years after before Ines, literally, saw the light. Still, she remained in darkness. Incredible it may seem how she remained alive, this was adequately explained when it was revealed that she conceived: finding her child kept her hoping, it kept her wanting to stay alive. Contrary to the truth, she saw Lorenzo as her savior, as the only man in her life, her object of affection. All she wanted was to find her daughter and bring her to him. It is probably not difficult to imagine that all these years she loved him, he who brought upon her misery, being the one who prodded the Church to return to the use of "The Question," a method of extracting confession through hideous torture, to weed out heretics, defined at that time as protestants, jews, moslems. Ines paid dearly for her aversion to pork which caused her to be suspected as practising Judaism.
Scared, shamed and alone, Ines found comfort in Lorenzo's visits, bringing news of her family and praying with her. A good and true Lorenzo was her truth. What is real though is that, after she was freed, the child she found in the tavern was not hers, as her Alicia had fled the orphanage where she was brought after Ines gave birth, and she has since become a harlot. What is real though is that Lorenzo never wanted her to regain her senses, as the truth in her would disgrace him once more. He never wanted her to be reunited with her daughter who he even sought in order to bribe her to agree to exile herself away from Spain. She was not as naive as her mother, she screamed, and fled.
Ines' truth is not unlike the movie's Church's truth: that God would give you the strength and the will to endure pain if only to resist acceeding to their truth; that confessions obtained by torture are true. Pondering about it, it was really God who is put to The Question when he is taunted to avert an evil, so contrary to Jesus' commandment to love thy neighbor. Living in a society of freedom, where the mass is read in a known language by a priest who does not turn his back on the faithful, where the Word is at the tip of your fingers if not at the tip of your tongue, I cannot fathom how the Church then even thought of any justification for bringing hell on earth through those inquisitions. Possibly, only the belief that any pleasure is sin, and all rational thinking is whispered by the enemy could justify such atrocities.
What is the truth? Truth to them was that the sun revolves around the earth, and they will burn at stake anyone who attempts to disprove it. Truth to you may be feelings of affection towards someone who, if you can only peek into the future, would never love you back the same way you love him, ever. Truth to Ines may be a family with Lorenzo, an infant child, when the the truth is that Lorenzo is dead, and her child has long lost her innocence.
posted by wernicke at 8:12 PM
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