Viridiana (The Criterion Collection)
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DVD details
Actor: Fernando Rey, Francisco Rabal, José Calvo (II), Margarita Lozano, Silvia PinalBrand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-05-23
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
DVD Reviews of Viridiana (The Criterion Collection)
DVD Review: Eppur si muove!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the masterpiece of atheist Spanish film director Luís Buñuel. An unrelentless, devastating, unmerciful criticism of religion. Yes, it can be viewed as a social satire, a political vehicle, etc. That's what makes it a great film, that you can view it from different perspectives.
To me the most valuable aspect of this film is the opportunity to see, as in a wide canvass, the soul and mind of this great atheist man. It is revealing that Buñuel took to the task of "proving" religion wrong and absurd with so intense passion and -I would even say- desperation. Because no one is more desperate than he who searches and can't find. But, as Unamuno would say to explain the angst of the author, it comes from seeking to believe with the reason and not with the life.
The film depicts Spain's social condition pretty accurately in those mid-century years. Unamuno explains this aspect (though he wrote decades before Buñuel's work) as follows: "In France and Spain there are multitudes who have proceeded from rejecting Popery to absolute atheism, because 'the fact is, that false and absurd doctrines, when exposed, have a natural tendency to beget scepticism in those who received them without reflection. None are so likely to believe too little as those who have begun by believing too much.'"
Another important aspect of the film is the way he depicts the poor. Helplessly incorrigible, lacking as much in money as in human virtues, and extremely ugly and repealing. It is very curious how Buñuel did not even allow any little space for sentimentality or candidness; I mean, there is no hero or anything even close to it. It's a terrible portrait of the human soul. I would say pessimistic, but I don't think Buñuel would agree. He would probably prefer sincere or realistic. The symbolism is so evident that any private school kid could figure it out, so forcibly paired are the scenes with their objects of criticism. And trying to make it so evident (and not as difficult as other of his surrealistic films) evidences his intensity of feeling, his anger, his hatred of all that Buñuel despises, religion. And not only Catholicism -it just happened to be Spain- but universal religion. Going back to the the poor in the film, Buñuel being a communist sympathizer, it is ironic that he doesn't show even a little mercy with his poor. I think the rich young man is a more admirable figure than any of his other characters. The female protagonist, the nun who gives up her vows being used only as a tool, cannot be expected to represent all nuns or all religious persons -it would be preposterous-. A case that in real life might happen isolatedly should not be used to prove a general rule. It is dishonest. But there is a correlation between his view of the economically poor and the Christian view:
"For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always." John 12:8
Isn't there something of the same nature? So how can one conception of the poor lead Christians to love them nevertheless (knowing that they will always be around), and the furious atheist/socialist to despise them (maybe not to condemn them, because surely "society or the rich" would take the blame). Well, that question is for everybody to meditate on.
I wish people like Buñuel would give Christ a chance. Unamuno, another great Spaniard, says: "Note the greater part of our atheists and you will see that they are atheists from a kind of rage, rage at not being able to believe that there is a God. They are the personal enemies of God." But -I say- how can you be an enemy of someone who does not exist?
However, this is a great and splendid work of art. But now, ending with a quote from Rousseau: "Where is the philosopher who would not willingly deceive mankind for his own glory? With believers he is an atheist; with atheists he would be a believer. The essential thing is to think differently from others."
Nevertheless, it moves!
Description of Viridiana (The Criterion Collection)
VIRIDIANA - DVD MovieWhile its so-called "blasphemies" have been tamed by the passage of time, Luis Buñuel's Viridiana remains a masterpiece for the ages. After 22 years in Mexico and the United States, Buñuel returned to his native Spain in 1961 with dictator Franco's permission to make any film he wanted, pending the approval of censors. Inspired by a minor saint named Viridiana and an erotic fantasy about making love to the Queen of Spain after drugging her, Buñuel proceeded to combine these elements into a characteristically provocative scenario about Viridiana (Silvia Pinal), a young woman about to become a nun, who leaves her convent to visit the decaying estate of her uncle, Don Jaime (Fernando Rey), an eccentric widower who's immediately taken with Viridiana's close resemblance to his dead wife. Jaime's aborted attempt to seduce Viridiana (and his subsequent suicide) sets the film's second half in motion, as Viridiana assuages her guilt by turning Don Jaime's estate into a haven for the dispossessed--quite literally a "beggar's banquet" that culminates in one of the most indelible images in all of Buñuel: a staged recreation of da Vinci's "The Last Supper," with a cast of itinerant peasants as "disciples" in Buñuel's new world order--a cutting response to backward notions of progress.
Like any great film, Viridiana reveals its depth and detail through multiple viewings. The film is scathingly critical of Catholic hypocrisy and Franco's Spain (Don Jaime's estate is a direct reflection of the country's moribund state of sociopolitical decay), and its allegorical content was not lost on Spanish authorities, who banned the film (it wasn't shown in Spain until 1977) after it won the coveted Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In a closing stroke of genius, Buñuel skirted around his censors with a final scene even more provocative (in its subtle implications) than the sexually suggestive ending he'd originally filmed. With much to say about the conflicting nature of human desires, Viridiana may have softened over decades, but it's never lost its ability to spark debate, discussion, and rewarding analysis of Buñuel's directorial vision. --Jeff Shannon
On the DVD
The newly restored, high-definition digital transfer of Viridiana impressively maintains Criterion's exacting standards of audio-visual quality; it's a flawless transfer, with deep blacks and richly detailed clarity. The supplements include new (2006) video interviews with actress Silvia Pinal and Spanish cultural scholar Richard Porton; warmly revealing excerpts from the 1964 French TV series "Cineastes of Our Times," featuring an interview with Buñuel; and a 30-page booklet with an essay on Viridiana by Princeton film scholar Michael Wood, and a generous interview excerpt from the book Objects of Desire: Conversations with Luis Buñuel. --Jeff Shannon
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