Viridiana

Viridiana is a 1961 Spanish-Mexican film directed by Luis Buñuel and produced by Gustavo Alatriste. It is loosely based on the 1895 novel Halma by Benito Pérez Galdós.
The film was the co-winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. In a 2016 poll of 350 experts organized by Spanish film magazine Caimán Cuadernos de Cine, it was voted the best Spanish film of all time, with 227 votes.
Plot
Before taking her final vows as a nun, Viridiana is told to pay a visit to her only living relative, an uncle who paid for her education and upkeep. This is Don Jaime, a recluse with a decaying mansion and estate who is looked after by a servant named Ramona. On her last night there, Don Jaime reveals that his wife (who looked exactly like Viridiana) died in their bed on their wedding night and begs Viridiana to wear the wedding dress and veil that he has lovingly preserved. After drugging her coffee, he carries her to the bed and is about to rape her when he regains control of himself. In the morning he says that she cannot now return to the convent because she is no longer a virgin, but she packs her things and flees. Although he calls out that it was a lie and begs her to stay, she is waiting at a bus stop when the police find her and take her back to the mansion. Don Jaime has hanged himself from a tree, leaving a will that divides his assets between Viridiana and an illegitimate son named Jorge.
Deciding that she cannot now live as a nun, Viridiana resolves instead to help those in need and collects vagrants, who she houses and feeds in the outbuildings. Jorge arrives with Lucía, a girl friend, and throws himself into renovating the neglected land and buildings, as well as starting a clandestine relationship with Ramona. Bored by rustic isolation and jealous of Viridiana, who Jorge would like to add to his conquests, Lucía leaves. One night when Jorge and Viridiana have gone to town on business with Ramona, the beggars break into the mansion. Initially they just pry and pocket things but then decide to stage a banquet, complete with group photograph to the sound of the Hallelujah Chorus in a parody of The Last Supper, which descends into a drunken orgy of sex and destruction. When the owners return, most of the beggars flee but two of the men capture Jorge and Viridiana, tying him up while one starts raping Viridiana at knife-point. As the other waits his turn, Jorge persuades him with cash to kill the rapist. The police arrive, fetched by Ramona.
A few nights later Ramona and Jorge are playing cards in his bedroom to hit music when they see Viridiana and he asks her in to make up a threesome. As if drugged, she walks in to her fate.
Censored ending
The Spanish board of censors rejected the original ending of the film, which depicted Viridiana entering Jorge's room and slowly closing the door behind her. A new ending was written and accepted that, according to some film historians, is even more debauched, if less explicit, than the first, as it implies a ménage à trois consisting of Jorge, Ramona, and Viridiana. The released version of the film ends with Jorge saying: "You know, the first time I saw you, I thought, 'My cousin and I will end up shuffling the deck together.'"
Cast
Silvia Pinal as Viridiana
Francisco Rabal as Jorge, Don Jaime's illegitimate son
Fernando Rey as Don Jaime, the widower of Viridiana's aunt
Margarita Lozano as Ramona, Don Jaime's maid
Victoria Zinny as Lucía, Jorge's girlfriend
Teresita Rabal as Rita, Ramona's young daughter
Rosita Yarza as the mother superior at Viridiana's convent (uncredited)
Francisco René as Moncho, the caretaker at Don Jaime's estate (uncredited)
Alfonso Cordón as Ramón, the foreman of the crew Jorge hires to fix up the estate (uncredited)
Manuel Alexandre as the peasant from whom Jorge buys a dog (uncredited)
José María Lado as the mayor (uncredited)
The Beggars
José Calvo as Don Amalio, who is blind
José Manuel Martín as "El Cojo" ("The Lame"), who has a bandaged foot and paints
Luis Heredia as Manuel "El Poca" ("The Little"), an elderly man who is short and thin
Joaquín Roa as Don Zequiel, a short, elderly man with a white beard
Lola Gaos as Enedina, who has two small daughters and cooks
María Isbert (credited as Maruja Isbert) as a woman who plays the guitar
Juan García Tiendra as José "El Leproso" ("The Leper"), who has sores on his left forearm (uncredited)
Milagros Tomás as Refugio, who is pregnant (uncredited)
Joaquin Mayol as Paco, who used to weave (uncredited)
Palmira Guerra as "La Jardinera" ("The Gardener"), who gardens (uncredited)
Alicia Jorge Barriga as "La Erona", who is a little person (uncredited)
Sergio Mendizábal as "El Pelón" ("The Bald"), who walks with a crutch and chooses not to come to the estate (uncredited)
Reception
While Viridiana is regarded by many modern critics as a masterpiece, its initial reception was not so uniformly positive. It was sent by the Spanish cinematographic authority to the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or, but then L'Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Vatican, described the film as "blasphemous", and the government of Francisco Franco banned its release in Spain. According to executive producer Pere Portabella, Spanish authorities tried to have the original negative burned, and it only survived because it was with a foreign company who had done some post-production work. The film was not released in Spain until 1977, two years after Franco's death, when Buñuel was 77 years old. For his part, Buñuel said he "didn't deliberately set out to be blasphemous, but then Pope John XXIII is a better judge of such things than I am".
The film won the Belgian Film Critics Association's Grand Prix, but Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote:
In 2012, Viridiana was voted the 37th greatest film of all time in the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound directors' poll; it placed 110th in the critics' poll.
Home video
The film was released by The Criterion Collection in the United States and by Madman Entertainment in Australia (on the "Directors Suite" label) and New Zealand.
Notes
References
External links
Silvia Pinal, Pere Portabella, Juan Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière speak about the film at 35 mm de cine español
Viridiana: The Human Comedy an essay by Michael Wood at the Criterion Collection
1961 comedy-drama films
1961 films
Censored films
Censorship in Spain
Films based on Spanish novels
Films based on works by Benito Pérez Galdós
Films directed by Luis Buñuel
Films set in Spain
Films shot in Madrid
Mexican black-and-white films
Palme d'Or winners
Film controversies in Spain
Religious controversies in film
Spanish black comedy films
Spanish black-and-white films
1960s Spanish-language films
1960s Spanish films
1960s Mexican films