Tristana

Luis Buñuel had a mastery of screen technique attained by very few directors. Confronted by the script of Tristana, what contemporary director would know where to start?

Buñuel's attention to detail is extraordinary. Every scene is packed with visual interest. In some strange way, the decor forms an essential part of the structure; it is a facet of Buñuel's unique vision. Moreover, he not only knows exactly when to end a sequence, but how to end it. For instance, when Don Lope (Rey) puts down the dog and walks away, the camera follows not him but the dog: an endearing and brilliant touch, and there are many more. Compelling throughout, even spellbinding.

If this film were a framed picture hanging in a gallery, thousands would come to see it and Buñuel would be acclaimed as a great artist. He was a great artist, in fact, but the cinema is an ephemeral form and people forget. We need to buy the videos and watch these fine movies from time to time, just to remind ourselves that a film can be a significant art form and not merely a commercial product cynically synthesised to extract the largest amount of money from the greatest number of people.

In the 30's, in Spain, the teenager Tristana (Catherine Deneuve) becomes an orphan when her mother, who is the servant of Don Lope (Fernando Rey), dies. Don Lope is a decadent but respected aristocrat, anticlerical and liberal with socialist principles, and he becomes the guardian of Tristana. Don Lope sexually abuses of Tristana and develops a strange lover/father relationship with her.

When Tristana meets the painter Horacio (Franco Nero), they fall in love with each other and Tristana flees from Don Lope. However, years later, Horacio brings Tristana back to Don Lope with a terminal disease on her leg. She has a severed leg and survives, and Don Lope asks her hand in marriage. She accepts but now Tristana is a bitter and cynical woman and Don Lope feels the consequence of his acts in the past.

"Tristana" is a morbid tale of lost of innocence by Luis Buñuel. I had seen this film for the last time on 05 Feb 2003 and despite the wonderful performances of Catherine Deneuve and Fernando Rey, it is not among my favorite Buñuel's films. As usual, the director criticizes the Church and the bourgeois class but his famous surrealism is only presented in Tristana's nightmare. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Tristana"

I like all films by Buñuel, and I don't think any of his films are boring. Yet, even if they could be very remarkable, some films are much "cheaper", less perfect than others, maybe because they were on a more limited budget. Tristana, though, is one of the perfect ones, in terms well-made:ness. I haven't got much to complain about this film. There is only one piece of music, and obviously Buñuel didn't put much music in his films, but it's acceptable, perhaps a good thing. The acting is very good. Rey is very good. I find the most impressive things to be the script and the dialog, which are fantastic.

Not the most surrealistic work, yet, probably one of Buñuel's ten most well-made.

Try this: 'Viridiana' meets 'Cet obscure objet du désir', but it is one of the least shocking, least surreal and least fascinating films by Buñuel. There are some brief illusional sequences and Deneuve is said to be the most expensive part of this film, but her performance doesn't reflect it. It is simply not convincing enough. Nevertheless it is a recognizable Buñuel concept in a subtle and accessible film. Cinematographer Jose F. Aguayo (Viridiana) did a fine job (in color) that looks like a step in the direction of the cinematography of Buñuel's last three films. No music as always for maximum sobriety. I don't especially want to recommend this, though I would like to see it again some day myself. If only to revive the great Fernando Rey (French Connection, Viridiana, The Immortal Story)...

7/10

A cinematic masterpiece, Bunuel's Tristana works on many layers, and can be enjoyed at face-value, as a dark romance, or as a scathing social criticism of pre/post World War II Spain. The latter interpretation is rather difficult to digest with just one viewing, but its allegories of Tristana and Don Lope as fascism and socialism present a richly disguised history of the Spanish Civil War and Spain's constant struggle between the socialist and the fascist. As is typical of Bunuel's work, his characteristic criticism of the Church as well as bourgeoisie lifestyles also presents itself in Tristana, however not as markedly as in such features as L'Age D'Or or The Discreet Charm.