Bunuel is considered to be the godfather of Surrealist Cinema. I got that from IMDb.com. He even resembles Salvador Dali. They were both Spaniards. This is the first feature film of his that I have watched. It is not his best. In the ranking of Surrealist films The Discreet Charmo of the Bourgeosie makes the top 20. I'm anxious to watch that one and write a blog about it. Viridiana is a good film. The best part of the film is the end when the destitute people the lead female character is taking care of goes to town from the country manor and comes back to find that they have taken advantage of her. The poor people she was taking care of engorged themselves on food and wine and made a mess of everything. I guess the message would be not to trust poor people. Perhaps that is what Bunuel's intention was? Whatever he meant the sequence is great. He has, in a subversive pose, the poor people pose around a table like the Da Vinci's Last Supper and the woman who is supposed to take the picture lifts up her skirt and flashes them. Bunuel is definitely poking fun at the sacredness of that painting and it's stature and meaning to Christianity.
The film is definitely an overt exposition about the principles of Catholicism. The lead female is on her way to be a nun when she is summoned to see her uncle who is perverse and scheming. Throughout the film we see her decline from very pious to in the end bankrupt about the ideology of Catholicism. In the final scene we see her without her habit, her long blonde hair luxuriously let down to her shoulders. It is obvious that her experience with the poor and handicapped she was trying to help was the last straw. She has given up on charity.
The entire film builds up to the final dinner scene. It is carefully plotted out, slowly building intensity, and finally culminates in an attempted rape scene of the once chaste female lead. It is not a complicated film. The narrative is linear, the cinematography is standard. It's in black and white. There are some low shots of peoples shoes and lower parts of the door. Otherwise the focus is mostly on the heads of people. There is one memorable shot of a crown of thorns that the female lead brought with her from the convent. It is used in the film to symbolize her chastity, her religiosity. In the final sequence we see the crown of thorns being thrown into a fire. To add emphasis it is fished out of the fire while it is ablaze and is placed apart from the fire still burning. The camera dwells on this image for several seconds. The symbol the crown of thorns burning crown of thorns represents is well made. It is the best and most meaningful shot of the whole film.
The film only runs about an hour and a half. It was made in the early sixties and does move a bit slower than what contemporary audiences are used to. The shots last a bit longer. There is substantial dialogue. I was a little bored until the ending sequence. Still, it was good movie and being raised Catholic with two parents who went to Church every weekend and made me make my confirmation it was somewhat shocking, yet also relieving when someone openly criticizes religion and the tenets of the Catholic Church.
I'm looking forward to more Bunuel films.
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