Review of Viridiana (1962) by Chris D — 17 May 2014

I thoroughly perplexing film: coming off the heels of watching "The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie" I found this one far more difficult to ascertain its "drive". Honestly, everyone is this film appears to be mentally disturbed and it felt like a giant void of humanity (although I can never deny that Spanish is a far more fair language than English, these people all should have been committed).

Dogs tied to wagons, cats jumping softly on rats, a crown of thorns lit on fire, a woman throwing yarn into a fire only to replace its absence with ashes? I felt like the film may have been aiming for a surreal bent (which appears to be Bunuel's forte) but it was so haphazard that I was left scratching my head when "Fin" arrived suddenly during the card game. What does stick out is that perhaps the original owner of the home was the most sane among the lot after all...and loneliness is the real disease. But so, apparently, is charity, which was thoroughly vomited on in this film. The Spanish (or, more widely, Europeans in general?!) must be pretty sick folk if this was praised. I was left confused and bewildered and only have a few odd and interesting moments to carry forward (the odd-man-out beggar in the dress and the bizarre finishing card game being two examples) but nothing to really recommend this film to anyone I know (or would want to...). Very strange...