Rating of
4/4
Beautiful Blasphemy
cacb3995 - wrote on 06/23/18
Viridiana (Silvia Pinal) is a young novice about to take her vows. Her only living relative, her uncle Don Jaime (Fernando Rey), invites her over to his state to spend a few days there. Even though Viridiana is reluctant, for she has met the man only one and considers him to be cold and distant, she agrees after her Mother Superior tells her to accept the invitation. At her uncle’s state she meets and befriends his servants, and slowly starts getting closer to Don Jaime. At the midpoint of the film, after a series of events that shake the perceived normality, Viridiana sets out to help the socially outclassed, wanting to offer them a little “human warmth”. But she’ll soon find out that things aren’t as simple and as black or white as she was thought in the convent.
There’s a lot to be read in “Viridiana”. To see it merely as an attack on the church is very short-sighted. It does critize the institution and its members, and it is full of symbolism and allegories that lead to such conclusion (just think about the hidden knife in the crucifix), but it does allow for other more varied readings. There is the political angle, for example, by which many scholars note parallels between Don Jaime’s abusive lord-esque figure and Franco himself, though personally I don’t buy into that, since Don Jaime is portrayed rather humanly and sympathetic in spite of his unholy intentions. I’d rather go with a more “universal” interpretation: the film is about humanity, its drives and its decadence. There’s of course a lot of emphasis on faith, religion and politics, but the film, especially in the second half, seems more focused on depicting both the good and bad in humanity, or rather how the good more often than not isn’t enough to mitigate the bad. As critic Michael Wood in his essay “The Human Condition” about this film said: “It is a picture of a society that doesn’t understand its needs.” Under this fall the religious, political and social angles Buñuel expertly tackles.
Full review at: https://breakingthefourthwallsite.wordpress.com/2018/06/23/viridiana-beautiful-blasphemy/
