MovieChat Forums > Viridiana (1962) Discussion > this one's a grower...

this one's a grower...


When the end credits came up, I'd be lying if I said I thought I had just seen a masterpiece. It was only a few hours later, when I looked back, that Viridiana really was something else.
Its very uplifting, thinking that al the 'classics' are in an asorted list that you oculd tick off one by one until you've seen them all, then you see a forgotten gem like this.

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I've had the experience you had with this film a few times myself with other films, but this particular film got me the first time. Maybe its because I have seen some of Bunuel's wilder, more surreal work and the realism here really drove home Bunuel's genius in a more pure fashion, but at the end of this movie I was literaly stunned.

This is one ballsy movie. I've NEVER seen a film that depicted the poor and uneducated this unmercifully. One fascinating way t view this film is to contemporize it into a parable about teachers and students. Viridiana could be likened to a modern day teacher attempting to educate students in a low income school system. Taken in this context, the film can be read as a damning indictment of the vain struggle to educate those who are unable to learn becasue doing so would require the creation of behavioral patterns that have never been instilled in them during early childhood. There is another term for what these people lack besides "behavioral patterns". That term is "love".

In short, the film depicts people unable to truly love, and LOVE is the chief tenet of Christianity and (in practice) all major religions and even general morality APART from religion. As I see it the film is less anti-religion than anti-CHARITY, particularly when that charity requires one to sacrifice the things THEY need to survive. It is all well and good to want to help, but staking one's OWN well-being on the well being of others can be not only foolish, but dangerous.

I admit the film's message DOES seem pessimistic to the point of misanthropy, but since when did great art have to be politically correct? This is a devastating film that, despite its bitterly cynical perspective, contains a message that is in its essence, truthful whether we have the courage to admit it or not. It dwells on the negative, but it is the task of every other film to examine the "ilver lining" of poverty. This is not that film...and that is why I feel it to be an absolute masterpiece, and among the very best of Bunuel's films.

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[deleted]

I agree the film was questioning charity, at least in its usual forms.
Early in the film, the uncle disparages his own early-life attempts to do good.
For this and other reasons, especially the film itself's uncharitable depictions of poor people, I was expecting his niece's charitable actions to end badly. Also, I think right after Viridiana's cousin buys the dog to save it,we see another very similar dog being dragged by another cart.

However, the main character does not really seem to commit herself to charity "on her own" (as she describes it to the Mother Superior) to the extent she would have done in the convent. She seems to live in the luxury of the big house with servants while taking in local beggars. She puts the alcoholic beggar who looks like a failed gentleman of her class in charge when she leaves, although there were others better qualified. It seems like she had
someone's help quickly finding/selecting people to take in, rather than living among the poor before deciding what they needed. I think most nuns would know better than to conduct charity like she did; what she did was almost more like a social experiment than an act of charity.

Having just seen this film an hour ago, it is indeed starting to grow on me.

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No. The whole time I was watching this film, I knew I was watching a masterpiece.

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I myself sometimes have to wait a week to really know what to think of a movie. I just finished this one and i think it's not as rich as Los Olvidados but it's a near masterpiece too. Have to wait some time before i can be sure though.

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this is a masterpiece, wow, so powerful and always interesting and entertaining. this is a 10/10 film!

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