Viridiana

Luis Buñuel was unable to live and work in Spain after the outbreak of the Civil War, during which thousands of artists were murdered – including his friend Federico García Lorca. In the 1950s, Buñuel made several outstanding films in Mexico until, encouraged by friends and with the quiet approval of Spanish authorities, he returned to his homeland. In 1961, he made Viridiana, one of the greatest masterpieces by the cinema’s most renowned surrealist. The film tells the story of a young novice who, before taking her vows, visits her uncle. He falls in love with her and attempts to seduce her. Feeling defiled and unworthy of religious life, Viridiana dedicates herself to serving the poor. Franco’s regime soon regretted allowing Buñuel to return. When the blasphemous film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the authorities tried to destroy all existing copies. Buñuel returned to Mexico – not without a sense of satisfaction that he had managed to make a film described by the world’s media as an “orgy” in ultracatholic, totalitarian Spain.

Piotr Kobus

Luis Buñuel was a Spanish surrealist director and one of the greatest filmmakers in world cinema. Having studied in Madrid, he moved to Paris in 1925, where he made An Andalusian Dog and The Golden Age in collaboration with Salvador Dali. His later creative life was divided between Mexico (The Young and the Damned, The Young One), Spain (Viridiana, Tristana), and France (Diary of a Chambermaid, Belle de Jour). Faithfully dealing with subjects such as religion, sex, and death, he consistently attacked ossified conventions and exposed the hypocrisy of bourgeois morality.

Catalog MFF Nowe Horyzonty 16. edition