Nigel Floyd began the post-film talk by detailing the collaborative aspect of the film between Luis Buñuel and the film’s lead actress, Silvia Pinal. He explained that the initial scandalous reception of the film could be partly attributed to Buñuel’s casting of an actress previously known for more straightforward, mainstream roles.

The prevalence of fetishism in the film was highlighted; Nigel Floyd cited Buñuel’s own lurid teenage fantasy of making love to a drugged Queen of Spain as the probable inspiration for a similar scene in the film between Viridiana and her uncle, Don Jaime!

The significance of the scene with Jorge and the dog came up for discussion. Parallels were drawn to Viridiana's own acts of pious charity. The ‘Last Supper’ sequence - a source of much of the original religious indignation - was regarded as still having the power to provoke and the placement of a blind beggar in the position of Christ was commented on. Nigel Floyd concluded by examining how an enforced change from the Spanish Authorities to the script helped Buñuel to create a decidedly kinkier conclusion by forcing the housekeeper, Ramona to be included in the final scene.

The question ‘What is Buñuel Attacking?’ was debated, with distinctions being made between the film’s anti-clerical and anti-Christian stance. In the open discussion that followed, BIFS’ members talked about the film’s targets: fascism, sentimentality, and the collusion between church and state.

Many members felt there were parallels between the ending of Viridiana and that of Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932), namely the treatment of beggars and the total devastation of Viridiana. Whether the ending of the film offered hope and direction for the future or just presented a hard but necessary shattering of illusions for the young novice is up for debate. The film looked to Jorge as a replacement for old traditions, but some members felt that the unsympathetic portrayal of Jorge suggested that Buñuel was wary of the capitalist ethos even before it became fully realised in post-Franco Spain.

Film Notes

7th June - Viridiana by Luis Bunuel with guest speaker Nigel Floyd

"Thank God I’m an atheist!" Luis Bunuel Viridiana is a powerful film that challenges accepted notions of spiritual and religious beliefs. A devastating critique of religion and society by the surrealist master Luis Bunuel, the film is a scathing attack on the sinister religious atmosphere of Franco’s fascist Spain. The film was banned in Spain and amidst all the scandals it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Viridiana, who is about to become a nun is given the manor house by her wealthy uncle Don Jaime who hangs himself after failing to win her hand. His bastard son Jorge takes over. Viridana wishing to do good deeds gives free food and housing to beggars. Full of Freudian symbolism, the film ends in a famous orgy of destruction, containing Bunuel's blasphemous parody of the Last Supper. When calm is regained Viridiana goes to Jorge. Not a typical Bunuel film if one thinks of him as primarily a surrealist, Viridiana only rarely moves to surreal fantasies. But the other elements of his films - irony, farce and black humour abound. And his satirical target is as always religion and the way people worshipped god. Bunuel came back from Mexico (where he emigrated in 1946 like many of Spain’s intellectuals and artists after the Civil War) to Spain to film Viridiana. It created such a furore that he never returned to Spain. But it also shot him to international fame that apart from making films in Mexico, he made some of his best films, as surreal as his early classics, as co-productions with mostly France and Italy. "One of the great feel-bad movies of all time", as Derek Malcolm put it, it continues to offend and Bunuel has succeeded in his aim to make viewers feel that we are not living in the best of worlds. Nigel Floyd has been a freelance film critic and broadcaster for over twenty years. He has contributed to the print media as also radio and television programmes. These include Time Out magazine, BBC Radio Four's Front Row' BBC Radio Four's The Film Programme and BBC Radio Three's Night Waves. He now reviews films for BBC News 24 television.