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Viridiana (1961)

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From Time Out Film Guide

After years in Mexican exile, Buñuel returned to his native Spain to make this dark account of corruption, which was immediately banned. A young nun, full of charity, kindness, and idealistic illusions about humanity, visits her uncle and tries to help some local peasants and beggars. But her altruism is greeted with ridicule and cruelty. Pinal gives a superb performance in the title role, and Buñuel's clear-eyed wit is relentless in its depiction of human selfishness, ingratitude, and cynicism. The final beggars' orgy - a black parody of the Last Supper, performed to the ethereal strains of Handel's Messiah - is one of the director's most memorably disturbing, funny, and brutal scenes. A masterpiece.

Author: GA

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

Technoguy said...

Posted on Mar 03 2008 01:06 This has to be one of the most memorable films ever made.It's a shocking attack on the Catholic Church and Spain.There is a kind of dream-like boldness to a lot of the narrative,an electric passage between images.There is symbolism by the bucket-load,the failed Republic,the wife who died on her wedding day,and modern Spain as an estate run to seed.There ar individual images, the bee rescued from a water barrel,a dog running beneath a cart,a cat pouncing on a rat.The theme of the naivety of do-gooding vs the reality of human nature,greed and selfishness.Bunuel connects the audience to more earthy,pragmatic drives throwing off the hypocrisy of organized religion in the process,due to it being out of touch with our needs.The parody of the Last Supper and Pinal's rape by a beggarly Christ are unforgettable.Even more subversive is her new secular role in a menage-a-trois in a final game of cards.An all time masterwork.

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