I’ve written a few times about Spanish surrealist Luis Buñuel and his distaste for the bourgeoisie. What I haven’t delved into is the equal disdain Buñuel had for the Catholic Church. Born and raised in a strict Catholic environment, Buñuel lost his faith at age 16 after reading Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species. Influenced by Darwin’s ideas and what he saw as the hypocrisy and corruption of the Church, Buñuel became an atheist. Though he still carried a fascination with the icons and rituals of the faith, and how to subvert them. I mean, this is a guy who, at one point in this film, depicts a crucifix that’s revealed to be a flick knife. If that isn’t the perfect representation of religious hypocrisy, I don’t know what is.
I’ve only covered Buñuel’s later films for Criterion Month, so I haven’t had the chance to explore the filmmaker’s exile from Spain following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. A supporter of Spain’s Republican government, Buñuel left the country in 1936 and remained in exile after Nationalist Francisco Franco seized power and established a dictatorship in 1939. Thus, for more than two decades, Buñuel lived and made films in the United States and Mexico.
Jump ahead to the late 1950s, and Franco’s regime is looking to restore Spain’s cultural prestige. So who do they invite back? Luis Buñuel. The film he makes? Viridiana, which seems like a brilliant decision after it wins the Palme d’Or at Cannes… until the Vatican newspaper denounces it as blasphemous. Franco’s regime responds by banning the film and ordering the negative destroyed. Thank God a copy had already been smuggled out of the country.
What kind of film could be so blasphemous that it took 16 years and the death of a dictator before it could be screened again in its native country? Let’s talk Viridiana.
Mexican actress Silvia Pinal plays Viridiana, a kind young woman living in a convent and preparing to take her final vows. Before entering the convent, Viridiana is persuaded to visit her wealthy uncle, Don Jaime (Fernando Rey). The visit takes a disturbing turn when Viridiana realizes her uncle is in love with her. Gross. Viridiana is the spitting image of Don Jaime’s deceased wife. So what weird thing does he make her do? Put on his dead wife’s wedding dress.
Viridiana is drugged with coffee and awakens the next morning to the news she is “not a virgin anymore,” according to Don Jaime, and she cannot return home. Jesus Christ. I know how to pick ’em, huh? It’s left ambiguous as to whether Don Jaime actually “did anything” to his niece while she was unconscious, but the damage has been done.
Viridiana tries to flee but is apprehended by the police after they inform her Don Jaime has killed himself and left his assets to her and his illegitimate son, Jorge (Francisco Rabal). With their newfound wealth, Viridiana and Jorge take very different approaches to the estate.
The womanizing Jorge wants to renovate Don Jaime’s land and property for profit, while Viridiana tries to turn the mansion into a sanctuary for the homeless. A selfless gesture, if not for the fact the homeless are a reckless, slovenly bunch who later tear apart the mansion and stage a banquet where they pose like the Last Supper. Mmm, sacrilicious.
The film portrays Viridiana as naive. She wants to help the poor but never truly understands them, nor can she control the outcome of her actions. She has good intentions but no way to execute them. This is Buñuel’s truest indictment of the Catholic Church. The Church preaches a message of peace and unity but struggles to deliver on its own ideals. It becomes a superficial institution whose “holier than thou” attitude isolates as many souls as it claims to save.
Now, Buñuel isn’t saying all of Catholicism is bad. Viridiana is a good person, but she, like anyone, is corruptible. Buñuel criticizes the Church, but he is also criticizing society in general, how even the best people are tested and fail. Viridiana is psychologically torn apart by her uncle, unable to help the beggars she takes in, and then, of course, there is the film’s ending.
The film ends with Jorge and the house’s maid, Ramona (Margarita Lozano), entering a bedroom with Viridiana to play cards, with the implication of a threesome. Whereas the Viridiana of the past would have turned a cheek to such wanton acts of carnality, her purity has been stripped away and she joins them.
This ending sent the Spanish board of censors into a frenzy, forcing Buñuel to alter the scene to make it more ambiguous. Thankfully, the version released today is the one Buñuel intended audiences to see. The final line, with Jorge joking about “shuffling the deck together” with his cousin, makes the implication clear without saying it outright.
I like that Buñuel is critical of institutions that overstep their bounds. He never had to go down this route either. Buñuel was raised in a wealthy religious family with limitless opportunities. He chose to be a provocateur, revealing the harsh truths of the world instead of hiding behind them. Whether it was poking fun at the bourgeoisie, the Church, or eyeballs, Buñuel was a filmmaker who always knew how to grab your attention and confront uncomfortable truths. He was called a surrealist, but he was far more than that. Buñuel’s surrealism always had real targets, and Viridiana is a bullseye.