Viridiana () is a 1961 Spanish-Mexican surrealist comedy-drama 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, but was banned in Spain and denounced by the Holy See for its criticism of the Catholic Church. The released version of the film concludes with Jorge shuffling a deck of playing cards while 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)

<!-- does Narciso Ojeda play the coachman at Don Jaime's estate? (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, it was met with controversy on release. The film was sent by the Spanish cinematographic authority to the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, where it shared the Palme d'Or, the festival's highest prize, with Henri Colpi's The Long Absence. However, L'Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Holy See, described Viridiana as "blasphemous", and the government of Francisco Franco banned it 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 that he "didn't deliberately set out to be blasphemous, but then Pope John XXIII is a better judge of such things than I am".

In 2012, Viridiana was voted the 37th greatest film of all time in the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound directors' poll and the 110th greatest in the critics' poll. In 2022, it placed 52nd in the directors' 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

  • 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