| Product Summary | | Publisher: Image | | Format: DVD | | UPC: 00037429212622 | | Buy.com Sku: 202135008 | | Item#: V27PGC | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25832 | | Category Keywords: Religion Satire Theatrical Release | | Rating: NR |
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| | | The Criterion Collection.
Features: DVD
Banned in Spain and denounced by the Vatican, Luis Bunuel's hilarious vision of life as a beggar's banquet is regarded by many as his masterpiece. In it, the young novice Viridiana does her utmost to maintain her Catholic principles, but her lecherous uncle and a motley assemblage of paupers force her to confront the limits of her idealism. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, this anticlerical free-for-all is as shocking today as ever.
"Stringently directed and expertly played..." Bosley Crowther, The New York Times
"Masterpiece!" Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
"More than 40 years after its original release, Viridiana remains one of the most shocking films ever made." Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Editor's Note
An idealistic novice nun, hoping to practice good works in the world, opens the doors of her ancestral estate to a ragtag collection of the poor, tired, and hungry. But her charity backfires when the recipients of her benevolence don't warm to her ministrations, choosing to go on living just as they were--in the gutter. A scathing indictment of perceived Catholic self-righteousness from surrealist master Bunuel.
Plot Summary
Viridiana is a novice on the verge of taking her vows when she visits her uncle Don Jaime's farm. Still pining for his wife who died on their wedding night, Don Jaime is struck by Viridiana's resemblance to her. He drugs Viridiana and attempts to rape her. Later on Don Jaime confesses to her what he tried to do, but soon hangs himself, humiliated by his own atrocious behavior. Viridiana inherits his farm and in an act of charity, opens it up to a marauding troupe of beggars. To her dismay, they ruin the main house in a wild orgy culminating in a gross parody of the Last Supper. Upon its release in 1961, VIRIDIANA was condemned by the Church, banned in Spain, awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and admired by film audiences the world over.
| Features | A New Essay By Author & Film Historian Michael Wood | | Audio: Spanish Dolby Digital Mono | | Interactive Menus | | New Video Interview With Cineaste Editor & Author Richard Porton | | Original U.S. Release Trailer | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Image |
| Release Date: 5/23/2006 |
| Running Time: 91 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1961 | | Catalog ID: 040 | | UPC: 00037429212622 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Spanish | | Available Audio Tracks: Spanish | | Available Subtitles: English | | Video: B&W |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 1.66:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Cannes Film Festival (1961) |  | Luis Bunuel, Winner, Golden Palm Award |
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"[A] typically classy, high-def digital Criterion Collection entry..." 05/12/2006 p.65Premiere
"The first of three Bunuel classics starring the Mexican superstar Silvia Pinal, it is still remarkably brisk and fresh and nasty." 07/01/2006 p.102 DVD Times 9 of 10
The performances are beyond praise, from established actors Silvia Pinal, Francisco Rabal and Fernando Rey (in the first of four marvellous characterisations he would create for Bunuel), right down to the beggars, some of whom were genuine (and apparently their mutual animosity was equally unfaked)...It's often underrated compared with the more high-profile French-made masterpieces that Bunuel would make over the next decade and a half, but two viewings over the last few months have convinced me that it's one of his very best films - and considering Bunuel's unquestioned importance in cinema history that's no small claim, or indeed achievement. - Michael Brooke
Jigsaw Lounge 8 of 10
Bunuel's films often caused controversy, and with Viridiana he caused the most sensational stir since the riotous reception for L'age d'or back in 1930 - the furore is well chronicled in John Baxter's informative biography, and also in Bunuel's own volume of memoirs My Last Breath. More than four decades on, Viridiana is still capable of raising eyebrows - but it hasn't really aged so well as Bunuel's best work...The picture is full of such ironic grace-notes: the rescue of a certain maltreated dog is an especially amusing and sour touch, summing up the picture's fundamental nihilist message (it's a waste of time trying to help out the unfortunate) in a blackly-comic, vaguely surreal vignette. - Neil Young
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