Viridiana, by Bunel, 1961

Brief plot synopsis: a soon-to-be nun leaves the convent to visit her uncle, who has paid for her studies. He falls in love with her (or at least, the image of her, as she looks like his dead wife) and tries to make her marry him. She refuses, and so he drugs her and lies to her, saying that he had his way with her and now she cannot become a nun. She becomes so distraught that he tries to convince her it was a lie, but we do not know if she believes him. She tries to leave anyway, and said uncle commits suicide with his servant's little girl's jump rope. Viridiana decides to stay on his farm (sharing it with her uncle's estranged son) and invites all kinds of poor people to live and work there. Eventually, the poor people betray Viridiana, hosting a raucous feast in the mansion, and eventually trying to rape her. By the end of the movie, Viridiana lets down her hair for the first time, and approaches her uncle's son looking for something. She finds him playing cards with the uncle's old servant, who has become his lover. He forces Viridiana to stay and play cards with the two of them, say
ing: "When I first saw you, I knew we'd be shuffling the deck eventually."

The movie is chalk-full of heavy-handed (purposefully?) imagery, such as Jesus's crown of thorns being thrown in the fire, the poor drunken party posing like the Last Supper, and various religious songs playing on the phonograph. Highlights include the estranged son rescuing an exhausted dog from being dragged behind a carriage by purchasing it from his owner, only to have another cart go back seconds later with a similar dog dragging behind it. Later this character asks Viridiana if she really thinks she's making a difference, helping these people when there are so many more out there.

Perhaps the best part of the film was an extra (Criterion collection version) of an old French television show on Bunel. He was interviewed, along with some of his friends and colleges, and a very interesting picture of the artist emerges. The footage is strange and wonderful, such as when a Frenchman is interviewing Bunel on top of a hill somewhere, and a donkey is heard braying off camera. Bunel insists that the cameraman cut to the donkey, or it will appear that they themselves were making the noise. Bunel has a sharp sense of humor and striking, sagging eyes. He talks about his movies focusing on small changes in characters, and interactions between characters. For him, he says, it is enough to show that a moment of doubt has occurred. Whether or not this doubt will change everything or nothing for the character is not really his concern. It is enough that this doubt has happened. (In Viridiana, the doubt moment is perhaps when she lets down her hair and thinks about joining in the ways of the flesh--only to sit down and play cards. Will she end up in the man's bed, perhaps with this other women also? We don't need to know.)

It's important to remember that in 1961, this film was horrifying for many people in Spain, as blasphemous, and was banned for many, many years in Spain. I liked Simon del desierto better, perhaps because of its incredible surrealism. Either way, Silvia Pinal is fantastic in Viridiana as well, holding contempt, horror and confusion in her facial expressions all at once.

4 out of 5 stars.