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

Entering the Quinta del Sordo, on the walls of which Goya painted his
Pinturas negras, the Inquisitor asks for Goya. After a brief medium shot of the
Inquisitor, Saturn devouring his Son is shown full screen in an extreme close-up
of the devouring mouth, thus associating the Inquisitor with the violent god. The
two are further linked by the bright red of the Inquisitor’s cloak and the blood
streaming down the painted figure’s limbs. The camera then moves from the
bottom to the top of the painting before jump-cutting back to a close-up of the
Inquisitor’s face which menacingly approaches the camera as he enters the room,
threatening that “nobody can escape divine retribution” (“Der göttlichen
Vergeltung kann sich niemand entziehen”), which he takes upon himself to fulfill.
At the very end of the film, the Inquisitor emerges from the Aquelarre
(Witches’ Sabbath) as if he was one of the devilish crowd, from which he is at
first almost indistinguishable. As he walks toward the camera, with the Aquelarre
behind him, he condemns Goya: “Ich verurteile Goya zum ewigen Vergessen. Er
sei verflucht” (“I condemn Goya to eternal forgetting. May he be cursed”). Here,
he pauses, looking directly into the camera and at the viewer: “Verflucht und
vergessen in Ewigkeit” (“cursed and forgotten in Eternity”). The irony of this
ending derives not only from the obvious fact that this condemnation to forgetting
ends a film about Goya which contributes to his memory and fame, but also from
the associative ekphrasis of this ending. Although the Inquisitor presents himself
as God’s representative on earth, with the power of God’s “divine retribution,” the
mise-en-scène association with the Aquelarre indicates that he is not God’s but
the Devil’s envoy.
137