'GOYA'S GHOSTS' NOT SO HAUNTING.

Byline: BOB STRAUSS

>FILM CRITIC

Milos Forman's latest historical pageant, "Goya's Ghosts," plays like a pale shade of "Amadeus."

Like the Czech director's Oscar winner, it's a tale of artistry and corrupt power set in the era of the French Revolution and Napoleon.

"Ghost" also bears insights into inspiration and craftsmanship, a smart and cynical view of politics and a villain who is far more interesting than its creative protagonist.

Similarities stop there. "Amadeus' " script, by its original playwright, Peter Shaffer, swept us along with great irony and human complexity. "Ghost's" story, by Forman and the respected, if past-his-

prime French scenarist Jean-Claude Carriere, is often unfocused and more than a little hokey. Forman has long wanted to make a movie about the Spanish Inquisition that reflected his own dire experience under Nazi and Communist regimes. This is it. But in realizing his dream, he seems to have lost track of the film's central subject.

That, of course, would be Francisco de Goya, played rather drably here by Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard. A genius so classically gifted he earned commissions from Spanish royals as well as the emperor's puppet replacements, Goya quite arguably also pioneered modern art with his shocking "Black Paintings, and the seminal "Disasters of War" series, which weren't seen until after the artist -- and Napoleon -- were long gone.

Apparently, Goya would paint anything (and anybody who paid for the privilege) and was essentially apolitical in a time when everyone was choosing one side or another. This all makes him a pretty cool subject for a movie, wouldn't you think? Unfortunately, Goya's pretty much a side character here who keeps getting involved with the much more dramatic -- and utterly fictitious -- tribulations of pious yet deeply disturbed Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem) and his victimized lust object, Goya's beautiful young model Ines (Natalie Portman).

When the film opens in 1792, Goya is also painting Lorenzo's official portrait. The monk is enraptured by a picture of Ines in the artist's studio and has her arrested, tortured and imprisoned by the Inquisition so that he may have his way with her.

This strategy actually blows up in Lorenzo's face, and he's written out of the film for quite a while. But there's still a good deal more to go before we realize that this has all just been setup. The story suddenly jumps 16 years into the future, to Napoleon's brutal efforts to "liberate" the reluctant Spanish people from their religious and royal oppressors.

Forman and his Spanish cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe ("The Others") make sporadically effective stabs at vivifying some of Goya's images and curate a lovely display of great art, clothing and architecture. They're less successful at bringing guerrilla warfare, which was more or less invented during the Peninsular War, to life.

It's part of an overall clunkiness that haunts "Goya's Ghosts." A more Goya-esque haunting effect was surely intended.

Bob Strauss, [phone], bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

GOYA'S GHOSTS

>R: violence, sex, nudity, language, children in jeopardy.

>Starring: Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard, Randy Quaid.

>Director: Milos Forman.

>Running time: 1 hr. 53 min.

>Playing: Laemmle Town Center 5, Encino; Laemmle Fallbrook 10, West Hills; Laemmle Playhouse 7, Pasadena; Landmark, West L.A.; Laemmle Sunset 5, West Hollywood; Laemmle Monica, Santa Monica; Edwards University Town Center 6, Irvine.

>In a nutshell: Semi-preposterous tale about the Spanish Inquisition and Napoleonic occupation, with the great artist relegated to the sidelines.

>Our rating: Two and one half stars