Viridiana
With Silvia Pinai, Fernando Rey, Francisco Rabal.
Mexico/Spain, 1961, 35mm, black & white, 90 min.
Spanish with English subtitles.
Before cloistering herself forever from the world outside, Viridiana pays a final visit to her estranged, dying uncle. She meets her secular match in the wealthy, old hermit who has dedicated himself to his dead bride and her sacred garments just as Viridiana prays to her god and carries his material symbols. Horrified by the uncle’s sins and perhaps by her own profanity, she graciously transforms the estate into a ramshackle homeless commune – the presence of which is complicated by the arrival of her urban, libertine cousin. This mixed-up utopia viciously devolves into a gorgeously grotesque, hallucinatory beggars banquet – forcing Viridiana to come to terms with the contradictory in a complex compromise. Banned for years in Spain and denounced by the Vatican, Viridiana is a miraculous vision of cruelty and compassion. – BG