Review of Viridiana (1962) by Jesse L — 16 Dec 2004

(VHS) (First Viewing, 5th Buñuel film).

My limited experiences with Buñuel have been problematic at best- NAZARIN really grew on me (to masterpiece levels), BELLE DE JOUR and DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID didn?t sit well at all upon reflection, and, well, UN CHIEN ANDALOU is just in a whole category by itself. But with VIRIDIANA, everything finally fell into place.

Buñuel?s signature style, which attempts to blend tar-black humor with delicious surrealism, is best manifested in VIRIDIANA, the story of a young and earnest nun (beautifully played by Silvia Pinal) who loses her religious faith when her attempts to help humanity blow up in her face. In my mind, it?s a relentlessly bleak subject, and a very serious one. And yet Buñuel manages to make this descent to hopelessness queasily funny at the same time, introducing many images (the uncle dressing up Viridiana in his dead wife?s wedding dress and courting her, the assortment of ungrateful vagabonds) that shock and disgust as much as they provoke laughter.

The culmination of the film is the photo the ruffians take of themselves at the table- Buñuel wishes his audience to link the image to Da Vinci?s ?The Last Supper.? In a split-second, Buñuel manages to make a devastating religious critique by subverting the image to no longer glorify purity and human perfection, instead creating an image that idealizes the anarchy and heartlessness that embodies the worst of humanity. It?s a brilliant touch in a brilliant film.