Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageViridiana (1961)
Director: Luis Buñuel
Movie review
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
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.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Luis Buñuel
Producer: Ricardo Muñoz Suay
Cast: Silvia Piñal, Francisco Rabal, Fernando Rey, Margarita Lozano, Victoria Zinny, Teresa Rabal full cast
Rated: 18
Duration: 91 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
The essential guide to the London Film Festival
Get the inside track on the all the films and events you'll want to catch at the Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival
Terence Davies: interview
Wally Hammond talks to visionary British director Terence Davies about his deeply personal and long-awaited new documentary ‘Of Time and the City’
A Bond a day: No. 10 'The Spy Who Loved Me'
Time Out revisits the 21 Bond movies day by day to celebrate the release of 'Quantum of Solace'
W.
Read our early review of Oliver Stone's George W Bush biopic, 'W.', playing at this year's London Film Festival
Ten friendly ghost movies
To celebrate the release of 'Ghost Town' in which Ricky Gervais plays a New York dentist who can see dead people, Time Out counts down ten great friendly ghost movies.
What do you think?
Post your review now