Luis Bunuel directed Viridiana, a Spanish-Mexican shocking satire of religion, charity, and social class, loosely based on the 1895 novel “Halma” by Benito Pérez Galdós.
Grade: A
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French poster
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It was sent by the Spanish cinematographic authority to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, where it would be chosen as co-winner of the Palme d’Or.
Before taking her final vows as a nun, Viridiana is told to visit her only living relative, Uncle Don Jaime, who had paid for her education. He is a recluse with decaying mansion, whose estate is overseen by the servant Ramona.
On her last night, Don Jaime reveals that his wife (who looked like Viridiana) died in bed on the wedding night. He begs Viridiana to wear the wedding dress and veil that he has preserved in her honor all those years.
After drugging her coffee, he is about to rape her, but then regains control of himself. In the morning, he says she cannot return to the convent as she had lost her virginity, but she packs her things and flees.
Although it was a lie and begs her to stay, and while she is waiting at bus stop, the police take her back to the mansion.
Meanwhile, Don Jaime has hung himself from a tree, leaving a will that divides his assets between Viridiana and his illegitimate son Jorge.
Unable to live as a nun, Viridiana resolves to help those in need and assembles vagrants, housing and feeding them.
Jorge arrives with girlfriend Lucía, and begins renovating the neglected land and buildings, as well as starting a clandestine relationship with Ramona.
When Jorge and Viridiana go to town, the beggars break into the mansion. Initially they just pry and pocket things, but then they decide to stage a banquet, taking a group photo to the sound of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.
The freeze-frame accentuates the point that the scene is a parody of “The Last Supper,” which quickly descends into a drunken orgy of sex and destruction. It’s Bunuel’s attack on both the church and middle-class conf0rmity, which relays a sense of sacrilegious scandal,
When the owners return, most of the beggars flee but two men capture Jorge and Viridiana, and one starts raping Viridiana at knifepoint. As the other waits his turn, Jorge persuades him with cash to kill the rapist.
A few nights later Ramona and Jorge are playing cards in his bedroom to hit music. When they see Viridiana, he asks her in for a threesome, and she stumbles into her fate.
The Spanish board of censors rejected the original ending, which depicted Viridiana entering Jorge’s room and slowly closing the door behind her.
A new ending was written that is even more debauched, if less explicit, than the first, as it implies a ménage à trois between Jorge, Ramona, and Viridiana. ]The released version ends with Jorge saying: “You know, the first time I saw you, I thought, ‘My cousin and I will end up shuffling the deck together.'”
Critical Status: Then and Now
While Viridiana is regarded by modern critics as a masterpiece, its initial reception was not particularly positive, due to its sardonic wit and shocking blasphemy.
The L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper, described the film as “blasphemous,” and Franco banned its release in Spain.
According to executive producer Pere Portabella, Spanish authorities tried to have the original negative burned, and it only survived because it was with a foreign company who had done the post-production.
The film was not released in Spain until May of 1977, two years after the death of the tyrannical dictator Franco, when Buñuel was 77.
Buñuel said: “I didn’t deliberately set out to be blasphemous, but then Pope John XXIII is a better judge of such things than I am.”
Bosley Crowther of “The New York Times” wrote a negative review, noting: “The theme is that well-intended charity can often be badly misplaced by innocent, pious people. The film offers an ugly and depressing view of life.”
In 2012, Viridiana was voted the 37th greatest film of all time in the British Film Institute’s Sight & Sound directors’ poll; it placed 110th in the critics’ poll.
In a 2016, a poll of 350 experts organized by Spanish film magazine Caimán Cuadernos de Cine, it was voted the best Spanish film of all time, with 227 votes.
Cast
Silvia Pinal as Viridiana
Francisco Rabal as Jorge, Don Jaime’s illegitimate son
Fernando Rey as Don Jaime, widower of Viridiana’s aunt
Margarita Lozano as Ramona, Don Jaime’s maid
Victoria Zinny as Lucía, Jorge’s girlfriend
Teresita Rabal as Rita, Ramona’s young daughter
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Luis Buñuel
Julio Alejandro
Produced by Gustavo Alatriste
Starring Silvia Pinal
Francisco Rabal
Fernando Rey
Cinematography José F. Aguayo
Edited by Pedro del Rey
Release dates: May 17, 1961 (Cannes Festival); October 10, 1963 (Mexico)
9 April 1977 (Barcelona)
2 May 1977 (Madrid)
Running time 90 minutes
