VIRIDIANA directed by Luis Buñuel (Mexico/Spain, 1961)
Perhaps I should temporarily rename this blog ‘Buñuel My Soul’ as I’m currently immersed in the movie back catalogue of the great Spanish director.
Some of these I am watching for a second time but Viridiana is a new discovery.
As with many of his movies it has been widely branded as obscene and sacrilegious; accusations which Buñuel would have regarded as compliments.
When it was first shown in Milan, the public prosecutor closed the cinema, impounded the reels and Buñuel was sentenced in absentia to one year in jail if he ever set foot in Italy.
Buñuel claimed disingenuously that he didn’t know what the fuss was about; wryly conceding that the Pope probably knew more about blasphemy than he did. Continue reading
