Goya in Bordeaux

Spain's Carlos Saura, who's had us click-clacking our heels through such films as Tango and Flamenco, shifts his attention to the world of art in his latest opus, Goya in Bordeaux. Unfortunately, the movie reads less like art than like art history--a gallery walk that uses the very latest in audiovisual aids. Looking a decent amount like Goya's self-portraits, Francisco Rabal plays the great Spanish artist when he was approaching the end, drifting in and out of...his paintings, which keep springing to life in order to illustrate what Goya was thinking about when he created them. Sketchy in content, the whole thing would be like a Peter Greenaway movie without the intellectual meat if it weren't for Vittorio Storaro's magnificent cinematography, a shape-shifting phantasmagoria in black, brown, white and, of course, red. If only this series of tableaux vivants had more vivant.