Cinema
Viridiana
Luis Buñuel · 1961
Synopsis
Before taking her vows, the novice Viridiana is sent by her superior to her uncle, don Jaime, who paid for her studies and lives in seclusion on a dilapidated estate with his servant Ramona. He sees in her the image of his wife, who died on their wedding night, and tries to keep her. After her uncle's death, Viridiana gives up the convent, inherits the estate with Jorge, don Jaime's natural son, and takes in beggars there to give them a roof and make them pray; but her charity does not produce what she hoped for.
Context
Co-produced by two Spanish companies and the Mexican Gustavo Alatriste, the film was written with Julio Alejandro from a novel by Galdós, Halma, and shot in Spain. Shown at Cannes, it received the Palme d'Or, ex aequo, but L'Osservatore Romano judged it blasphemous, notably for a banquet of beggars that parodies the Last Supper; the government banned it, removed the director general of cinematography and stripped it of its nationality, so that it circulated as a Mexican film. It was not released in Spain until April 1977.
Who it is for
A black-and-white film of an hour and a half, with constant irony; Francoist and Vatican censorship sheds light on the scenes it targeted.
Prizes and reception
Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1961; voted the best Spanish film of all time by the magazine Caimán Cuadernos de Cine in 2016.