Tag: fernando rey

directed by Luis Buñuel

I’m sometimes worried when I’m writing about some big classics, which film critics interpret over and over, because I’m afraid of two things. First, if I get too deep into explaining the film, its metaphors and symbolism, those of you who aren’t much interested in film interpretation would simply stop reading or fall asleep. Second, if I don’t try to analyse the film even a bit, those of you who take cinema more seriously would feel disappointed. But the point of this site is to share interesting titles and encourage you to keep discovering the beauty of the world cinema. I’m not here to educate or to interpret films, so with all the respect to Buñuel’s creativity and intentions, I’ll skip a lecture about symbols and all that. I’ll just tell you what “Viridiana” is generally about and I’ll let you discover it better on your own. So as you might be guessing, the main character is named Viridiana (Silvia Pinal), who’s a young nun going to take her final vows. Before that, she gets an invitation from her only living relative, uncle Don Jaime (Fernando Rey). When Viridiana visits her uncle, the man is incredibly shocked about her resemblance to his deceased wife. Thankful for hosting her, Viridiana is ready to do everything for Don Jaime. Literally everything. So she doesn’t withhold too long when the man wants to see Viridiana… in his wife’s wedding gown. And here I stop, so you can see what happens next yourselves. Luis Buñuel is one of the most significant filmmakers in Spanish cinema, so if you haven’t seen anything by him, I definitely recommend you to see “Viridiana”. His style is very specific, very abstract, so it’s quite difficult to understand his productions after just watching them once. It’s one of those filmmakers you need to study to understand well. It’s worth it, because he shared a lot of interesting messages hidden in his films, but I know it’s not for everyone. Still, “Viridiana” is known as one of his “most understandable films” and I’m sure that even if you’re not a huge film geek, you’ll see what he did there. I definitely like this production for the camerawork and editing, for the main actress – Silvia Pinal, and also for the dinner scene and the ending, which both are full of food for thought and they could be a good topic for a film club meeting. Try to see this Spanish classic and find something for yourself to admire.

My rating: 7.5/10
S.