Viridiana

Luis Buñuel’s Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece of subversive cinema. Awarded the Cannes Palme d’Or, this was Buñuel’s sole interruption of his post- Civil War exile. The film was banned upon release due to its anticlerical images, notably Buñuel’s famous parodical shot of Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting, The Last Supper. Viridiana centres on an idealistic, devout young nun who, before taking her final vows, visits her wealthy uncle Don Jaime, who has ’selflessly’ provided for her over the years… Buñuel critiques the double standards of the Church and power- elite, and fills the most mundane gestures with erotic intent.The picture Buñuel made of his country’s plight is replete with symbolism of what Spain had become, a warning of what it might be in a world gone mad. Viridiana may be a compelling shocker, but it is also a beautifully made picture with wonderful visuals, and the shock it gives may be virtually necessary to its meaning. Buñuel himself expressed it well when he said, “The sense of film is this: that we do not live in the best of all possible worlds.” Unreleased in Spain until 1976, and only recognised as a Spanish film in 1984, Viridiana remains a masterpiece of subversive cinema.