The Naked Maja (1958)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Henry Koster

Writers:

Norman Corwin (writer)
Talbot Jennings (story)

Release Date:

20 December 1958 (Italy)

Genre:

Adventure | Biography | Drama | Romance

Plot Keywords:

Painter | Beautiful Woman | Goya

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Ava Gardner	...	Maria Cayetana, Duchess of Alba
Anthony Franciosa	...	Francisco Jose de Goya
Amedeo Nazzari	...	Prime Minister Manuel Godoy
Gino Cervi	...	King Carlos IV of Spain
Lea Padovani	...	Queen Maria Luisa
Massimo Serato	...	Conte Rodrigo Sanchez
Carlo Rizzo	...	Juanito
Audrey McDonald	...	Anita (as Audrey Macdonald)
Ivana Kislinger	...	Pepa
Renzo Cesana	...	Bayeu
Carlo Giustini	...	José
Carmen Mora	...	Prima Ballerina
Patrick Crean	...	Enrique (as Pat Crean)
Peter Meersman	...	Dr. Peral
John Karlsen	...	Inquisitor

Also Known As:

La maja desnuda (Italy)
La maja nue (France)

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

Italy | USA | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

S.G.C.

Romantic trash

"The Naked Maja" has beautiful sets and costumes, but only a passing acquaintance with reality. About the best that can be said is that it features some impressive views of Miss Gardner's lovely bosom.

Diego Velázques (1599-1660) painted one of the earliest known Spanish nudes, the Rokeby Venus, featured as the "loot" in the film "The Happy Thieves."

About two centuries after Velázques, Francisco Goya 1746-1828) painted a short, plump nude maja (street girl) reclining on a bed. When this picture was criticized as obscene, he painted the same girl again, in the same position but dressed, which makes her more, rather than less suggestive. The chunky girl in the "maja" paintings does not resemble Goya's portraits of the Duchess of Alba in any way.

When I was last in the Prado the two majas were hanging on either side of the door to the room housing the portrait of King Carlos IV and family – and the queen was definitely not the lovely young woman who played the part in "The Naked Maja."

Goya also painted two portraits of his very close friend, the tall, angular Duchess of Alba, in one she is dressed in white and in the other, in black. The 'black portrait' shows the duchess pointing imperiously at the ground where the words "solo Goya" ("only Goya") can be seen written in the sand at her feet.

Milos Forman's "Goya's Ghosts" (2006) is a far better film and much closer to historical fact. Goya's passing affair with the Duchess of Alba, who was certainly not the girl in the Maja paintings, does not figure in the latter film.