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

Inquisitor in between. Both series of montages are accompanied by rhythmic
hand-clapping, which in the second montage becomes increasingly faster and
more nervous, perhaps mirroring Goya’s heartbeat, until it ends with a long shot
across the Inquisitor’s table.
The montage then, indicates the progression of the interview and Goya’s
increasing sense of threat from the Inquisitor. This montage of Capricho images
thus can be interpreted as a dramatic ekphrasis of the Sueño de la razón. Showing
Goya sitting at a table, threatened by the demonic power of the Inquisition, this
montage emphasizes the connection between Goya’s Capricho 43 and Spain’s
current political situation as in a state of dormant reason (due to the repression of
Enlightenment thinkers), drawing an analogy between the activity of the
Inquisition and being haunted by the demons. Spain’s sleep of reason, then, has
led to the dream of power of the Inquisition, thereby producing monstrous
conditions of surveillance and suppression. The fact that the Sueño de la razón
itself is projected at a central moment during the montage (initiating the second
one) and remains on the screen for a comparatively long time, further underscores
Goya’s experience of the Inquisitor’s questioning in similar terms as being
haunted by demons. Moreover, the film alludes ironically to Goya’s inability to
banish these demons with his pen when the montage begins again after a shot of
Goya surrounded by pages of the Inquisitor’s writing. The pen is here not his tool
for expelling the demons, but the Inquisitor’s instrument of verbal torture. Goya
thus remains helplessly at the mercy of the demons and the Inquisitor. But even
though the Inquisitor is completely integrated into the montage, he is clearly
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