Plot: What’s it about?
Viridiana (Silvia Pinal) is an idealistic nun with no desire to leave her convent, but her presence in the outside world is soon needed. She doesn’t like to be outside the convent and fears the world beyond the walls, but she has been ordered to do so. Her benefactor and uncle has become quite sick, so she is to visit him and give him comfort. But Viridiana has never liked this uncle, as he has been obsessed with her death mother, to the point of being totally consumed. She does indeed visit him however and decides to confront him about his son, the one he disowned as a bastard. As she expected, her uncle is still obsessed and even puts on her mother’s wedding dress, or at least tries to. Her last night in the home turns out to be a twisted one, as her uncle begs to put on the dress, then drugs her into submission. He uses the chance to fondle her, but little else, then hangs himself with a jump rope to end his life. He leaves his estate to Virdiana and his son, so they move in and he farms the land, while she continues her ministry work. When a band of vagrants break in and then threaten to rape Viridiana however, how will this newly acquainted relationship hold up?
This movie has a bunch of vagrants who invade a mansion and replicate The Last Supper. That alone is more than enough reason to check Viridiana, if you ask me, but with Luis Bunuel in the director’s chair, that is just part of the surreal madness. Yes, Bunuel is known for the surreal, but this is perhaps his masterpiece, a work of art without a drop of commercial influence. But this is not art at the expense of entertainment, as Bunuel manages to tell us a multi-tiered story, just one soaked in surreal moments. The story is coherent and the characters are well developed, not to mention the pace is quite brisk. So this is an artistic production, but Bunuel doesn’t labor to give us some pretentious project, he is able to keep that balance in check. The movie can be taken different ways, depending on how you want to read into it all. You can take it at face value, which is effective, or you can look deeper and pull more social and political messages from the material. The film was banned and condemned, but survived and now, seems as relevant as ever. The ideas explored in Viridiana might not all be universal, but some are and that keeps the film from being too dated. This is not one of Criterion’s best releases, but given the film’s circumstances, we should be satisfied that the transfer turned out as well as it did. Viridiana is a must see for films buffs of even a casual nature, so it earns this recommendation.
Video: How’s it look?
Viridiana has been given a new 4K transfer in glorious black and white. The end result gives us a look that’s far better than I expected. This is a project where source materials couldn’t have been easy to track down, let alone in decent condition. The digital restoration did shine up the elements a little, so grain and debris are lessened, but frequent imperfections still surface. There was a long way to go since Criterion’s offering on standard DVD, but they’ve knocked it out of the park here.
Audio: How’s it sound?
It appears as if this is the included mono used for the DVD release. I found no real problems with clarity or harshness, which is good for a film of this nature and age, so I was pleased from the start. The music and sound effects are clean and come off well, even if not as rich as a full surround track would be. I heard no issues with the vocals either, which sound crisp and are always at a proper volume, no trouble arises there.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Criterion’s 4K offering ports over the same supplements from its earlier release.
- Interviews – Sylvia Pinal looks back on meeting Luis Buñuel and their subsequent working relationship. Film scholar Richard Porton gives us more than enough information to fill a commentary track in his 13-minute interview.
- Cinéastes de Notre Temps – a 37-minute collection of clips from the French program devoted to Buñuel’s films.
- Illustrated Booklet – Film scholar Michael Wood and an interview with Buñuel are the highlights in this leaflet.
The Bottom Line
I have to admit that it’s been a while since I saw this. Most likely it was when Criterion’s DVD came out and that’s been a couple of decades. Still, the film does have its fans and though the lack of any new supplements is a bit of a downer, the updated visuals might be enough to warrant a purchase.
