Viridiana
"Viridiana" is Luis Bunuel's most powerful and disturbing
argument against the self-deception and harm done
by those who are driven toward sanctity and "purity." It
stands for the unsentimental understanding and acceptance
of all that life offers, whether it be lust or honest
recognition of the monsters that society has made
of men. Developed from an image Bunuel had of a young
woman drugged by an older man, "Viridiana" is the story of a beautiful young novice (Sylvia
Pinal). The Mother Superior suggests that Viridiana see
her uncle before taking her final vows. Filled with
foreboding, yet compliant, she travels to the estate
where her uncle lives with his maid and her daughter.
The uncle, whose wife had died on her wedding night
before the marriage was consummated, has remained
faithful to his marriage vows but becomes aroused
by trying on his wife's wedding garments. Viridiana
arrives with all her religious paraphernalia — a
heavy cross, a stone, a hammer, nails, and a crown
of thorns — but she is uneasy because everything
on the farm conspires to remind her that she is a
woman. The uncle (Fernando Rey, masterfully conflicted
) tries to convince her to stay with him, but she
refuses. Then he asks her to try on his wife's wedding
gown, drugs her with the assistance of the servant
and carries Viridiana to his bed. Although he restrains
himself from raping her, he implies his knowledge
of her to keep her from leaving.
Fearful and shattered, the young girl runs off,
but as she is about to board a bus, the authorities
tell her that her uncle has committed suicide. Convinced
that she has been corrupted, but determined to live
as a good Christian nonetheless, she returns to run
the estate with her uncle's illegitimate son, Jorge
(Francisco Rabal) who goes about the business of administering
the farm and curiously looks on as Viridiana gathers
up beggars and cripples, a leper and a blind man
to live there also. They humor her because they think
she is crazy. In a shocking scene, they stage a macabre
orgy that comes to a climax when one woman poses
them behind the table and they fall drunkenly into
the positions of The Last Supper as Mozart's Requiem
plays on.
Viridiana returns to this vast shambles and is attacked
and nearly raped when she is saved by Jorge. Now
completely lost, but violently wrenched back into
life, the final scene shows Viridiana seeking out
Jorge and the maid. The three of them play a game
of cards together with rock 'n' roll music in the
background as Jorge says, "I knew that one day
we would all play a little game together." (The
original ending had Viridiana going to Jorge's room
while the maid peered through the keyhole.)
When the film burst like a bombshell at the Cannes
Film Festival, a Dominican priest wrote to L'Observatore
Romano that it was incredible for the festival to
show such a sacrilige against religion. Franco promptly
prohibited it from being shown in Spain although
it was a Spanish entry. The evolution of his freest
film since L'Age d'Or the new production also reflected
the change in Bunuel: "Once upon a time when
I was offered the consecrated wafer I would spit
on it; now I simply say, 'I couldn't care less.'"
Excerpted from an interview with Bunuel in "Eye
on the World."
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