Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...

point, allowing the viewer a glimpse of the whole nightmare. Throughout much of
the first part of this scene, the camera is at an overhead or high angle position,
which, in addition to the circling movement of the camera above Goya’s head
produces a dizzying atmosphere and a loss of orientation in the viewer. Likewise,
when at eye-level angle, the camera often zooms into the objects focused on (that
is, either Goya or his paintings), thus again not allowing for any spatial
orientation. Finally, the whole sequence contains allusions to two of the film’s
musical leitmotifs, Luigi Boccherini’s “Fandango” and a piece by an anonymous
Spanish singer of the sixteenth century, “No hay que decirle el primor.”
After the visual construction of Goya’s mental attack, when he sits down
in the position reminiscent of the Sueño de la razón, the camera zooms in on
Goya burying his face in his arms, thereby signaling that the following action
originates in his mind and represents his point of view. Behind him the painting of
Asmodea (Asmodeus, 1820-24) can be seen. Goya looks up, suspiciously glancing
into the camera and at the viewer, when the scene jump cuts to a full-screen view
of that painting. Thus implying that Goya is staring at the painting which we just
saw behind him, the jump-cuts here produce a spatial confusion and
indeterminacy for the viewer that mirrors that of Goya in this scene, as well as the
use of space in Goya’s Caprichos. 147 Immediately upon seeing the full-screen
view of Asmodea, a shot is heard, after which Boccherini’s Fandango briefly
147 López-Rey has emphasized that the “contrast between clear delineation of figures and
indefinite often shapeless nature of background endows the Caprichos plates with a sense of
unreality” (98). Their “shadowed background with only faint delineations of landscape or indoor
spaces” and the lack of clear indications of distance and depth often produce spatial
indeterminacy. In the few instances when there is an indication of a remote distance, this only
“serves to enhance the abnormal proportions of the foreground” (ibid.).
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