You won't be disappointed!

Simply Perfect

Absolutely Brilliant!

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is a melodrama involving 18-19th century famed Spanish painter named Goya (Anthony Franciosa) and famous model (Ava Gardner) for the title painting . It's a slow vision of Saragossan painter Francisco Goya Lucientes' waning days in Madrid , as he wanders through Madrid streets and watches the citizen uprising against Napoleon troops . It portrays his relationship with historic personages as Carlos IV (Gino Cervi) , his wife Maria Luisa (Lea Padovani) and the scheming favorite Godoy (Amadeo Nazzari). As Goya observes events, dances , parties , inquisition trials that inspired his work . As the highlights of the movie result to be when are brought to life scenes of known paintings as ¨portrayal of Carlos IV family¨, ¨The charge of Mamelucos¨, ¨The trails of Inquisition¨, ¨Los Caprichos¨ and many others .This is a costumer partially based on facts but predominates the slow-moving melodrama. The picture relies heavily on lovely relationship between Goya and Duchess of Alba . Glamorously and sumptuously photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno , Federico Fellini's usual . Lavishly produced by Goffredo Lombardo -Titanus production- that the next years financed another vehicle for Ava Grdner as ¨Angel wore red¨ directed by Nunnally Johnson . Emotive and romantic musical score by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino . The motion picture is middling directed by Henry Koster and filmed with a pervasive melancholy that does for slow drama . Koster , a veteran Hollywood filmmaker expert on historical genre as ¨The robe , Desiree , The Virgin Queen and D-Day the sixth of June¨ and comedy genre as ¨Inspector General , Mr. Hobbs takes a vacation , Bishop's wife and Rage of Paris¨. The flick weaves an intrigue between Duchess of Alba , Godoy and Goya who painted the famous Majas ; the actual deeds are the following : Two of Goya (Anthony Franciosa)'s best known paintings are The Nude Maja (La Maja Desnuda) and The Clothed Maja (La Maja Vestida). They depict the same woman in the same pose, naked and clothed, respectively. Without a pretense to allegorical or mythological meaning, the painting was "the first totally profane life-size female nude in Western art" . The identity of the Majas are uncertain. The most popularly cited models are the Duchess of Alba (Ava Gardner), with whom Goya was sometimes thought to have had an affair, and Pepita Tudó, mistress of Manuel Godoy; Godoy (Amadeo Nazzari)subsequently owned them. Neither theory has been verified, and it remains as likely that the paintings represent an idealized composite. The paintings were never publicly exhibited during Goya's lifetime. They were owned by Manuel Godoy, the Prime Minister of Spain during Carlos IV (Gino Cervi) kingdom and a favorite of the Queen, María Luisa (Lea Padovani). In 1808 all Godoy's property was seized by Ferdinand VII after his fall from power and exile, and in 1813 the Inquisition confiscated both works as 'obscene', returning them in 1836 to the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.Other films dealing with Goya's life are : ¨Goya¨ by Nino Quevedo with Francisco Rabal ; ¨Los Desastres De Guerra¨ TV series by Jose Ramon Larraz with Enric Majo as Goya and the best is ¨Goya in Bordeaux (1999) by Carlos Saura with Francisco Rabal and Maribel Verdu as Duchess of Alba that is a highly theatricalized vision of exiled painter.

If THE NAKED MAJA had a better script more faithful to the true life story of Spanish artist Francisco Goya and his affair with the Duchess of Alba, this may have been worth all the expense that went into producing it. There are fine production values including the gorgeous costumes worn by Miss Gardner, the opulent settings, the detailed color photography and the pretty background score full of pseudo-Spanish themes.As a romantic drama, it only exposes the clash of two different acting styles--the overly intense histrionics employed by ANTHONY FRANCIOSA in the method tradition and the more natural technique of screen acting from AVA GARDNER as the woman he falls helplessly in love with at first sight. Her aloof demeanor only makes her more irresistible and there is one brilliant dance scene where the fiery Spanish flamenco music makes their emotions come to life vividly at least for the length of this sequence. Otherwise, their pairing as lovers never seems as intense as the script would suggest.Despite an overuse of eye make-up, Gardner at this point in her career was still very attractive in what is basically a one-dimensional role as an aloof woman with a past who cannot bring herself to declare love for the artist until it is too late.Henry Koster's direction is a tad too slow in pace but the main fault is the script which never permits the two leads to be anything more than one-dimensional in concept.

In her very pleasant memoirs ,Ava Gardner recalls Anthony Franciosa's very "actor's studio method " acting ,which she did not take seriously :his performance when he is delirious and when he proudly tells the Holy Office that the beauty of a woman was given to man by God is revealing;Gardner tells us how much time he spent wondering how he would play "THAT " scene ,how he would deliver "THIS" line.Koster's direction is mediocre at best ,static and academic ,not even using Goya's art -what Vincente Minnelli did with Van Gogh in "lust for life" -;anyway as an user has already pointed out the Maja does not resemble Gardner and for a good reason: the picture was made for Manuel ,the villain of the movie ,and it represents his hot lover Pepita!The screenplay is confused ,it's a stodgy mixture of art,religion,intrigues ,irresolute king,wicked minister and Napoleon's army around the corner.For all that,Mrs Gardner's extraordinary beauty survives and even if the movie does not satisfy,the simple fact of watching her will make your day.She would prove ,in her following movie ("on the beach") and even more in "the night of the iguana" that she could act ,and superbly act when she was given decent scripts to work with.

A well narrated film in sensational technicolor, where Ava Gardner shows her charm as actress. Her famous legend in Spain is very adecuate for this film. An magnificent world with wine, bulls, spanish music and the fabulous pictures by Diego Velazquez, a great spanish painter whose picture named "the naked maja" builds a magic legend in Spain. Curious and excellent film. And an inmortal woman: Ava Gardner...