Luis Buñuel
Tristana

Something quite improbable and pretentious would be if I started to rank the best films of the unparalleled (and unmatched) Spanish genius Luis Buñuel. Absolute and supreme master who was initially among the pioneers of cinematic surrealism, then developed his own style strongly and inexorably irreverent, mercilessly attacking the endless and shocking squalor of the bourgeois and ecclesiastical classes. Therefore, at the same time, contemplating the identification of a hypothetical "period of maturity" would be even more impossible, besides being unjust. However, it is undeniable that the series ranging from "Viridiana" (1961), through "The Exterminating Angel"- "Belle de Jour"- "The Milky Way", to the devasting "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" and "That Obscure Object of Desire" (1977) (these two, in hindsight, are to be considered as the final testaments of Buñuel) is something unique and extraordinary. An incredible streak of great masterpieces one after another, personal preferences aside, always without dropping even a single millimeter in quality, and all objectively considered as milestones. It is perhaps not a coincidence that one of the protagonists of the first mentioned on the list was Fernando Rey, who with that "Viridiana" began his collaboration with the Spanish director until becoming his fetish and most representative actor, forming what is for me one of the greatest cinematic duos of all time. His second test was, after 9 years, in this "Tristana", which I have left for last and which I want to talk about in this review.

"What a great man Don Lope..."

Don Lope, played indeed by Rey, is a respected and esteemed middle-aged bourgeois man. The young and stunning Tristana (the divine Catherine Deneuve in her second consecutive film with Buñuel after "Belle de Jour") is entrusted to him after the death of her mother, clearly against the girl's will who can do nothing but endure passively. From this point, the situation in some way closely recalls (although with substantial differences) precisely that of Viridiana, with Uncle Don Jaime/Rey who tried to convince his niece to marry him. In that case, however, Sister Viridiana rejected him, causing the relative's suicide. Tristana, on the other hand, ends up accepting to become the Don's lover. However, she harbors and nurtures a feeling of hatred and resentment towards the old man. She dreams of his severed head hanging from a bell. She feels in a state of strong oppression. Don Lope is a character who carries with him every hypocrisy and every possible contradiction. He professes himself "an unwavering defender of all the weak"- misleading a policeman chasing a hooligan- while at the same time shamelessly being served at home. He declares himself against any marital bond in the name of absolute freedom: "Don't you smell the sickly sweet scent of matrimonial bliss? Haven't you noticed the bovine expression of resignation on their bored faces? Goodbye love...", but he almost forces Tristana to stay secluded at home for weeks. "The honest woman remains at home all year". When Tristana starts seeing (more or less) in secret the young and handsome painter Horacio (Franco Nero), he ends up threatening her with death. But Lope in reality is not violent. He is more simply a sad, repressed, passive do-nothing and spoiled .

"Work is a curse. Down with work! What one is forced to do to earn a living. That work there (referring to the factory work carried out by the caretaker's deaf-mute son) does not ennoble as some say, it's only to fill the belly of dirty exploiters. Only what one does for one's pleasure ennobles a man. And may everyone be able to work that way. Take me: I wouldn't work even dead, and as you see, I live poorly, but I live without working."

He is a convinced anticlerical, who does not accept priests in his home. For Tristana, he expresses a perverse, morbid, and possessive sentiment: "I am your father and your husband, and I choose either one at my pleasure." But at heart, however sickly it may be, of sincere affection. Until he accepts her back gravely ill following the failure of the relationship with Horacio. The closer the film comes to its end, the higher the desire and curiosity about how the story concludes, awaiting yet another impactful finale typical of Buñuel's films. A finale that will be, in every sense, worthy of a masterpiece of this caliber.

Inspired (as great authors freely do) by a famous novel of the same name by Benito Pérez Galdós, "Tristana" is a film that, once again, deeply moves. First and foremost, what stands out is the purely aesthetic detail of extraordinary visual quality, exceptional photography, and color. Buñuel (as always, co-author of the screenplay) once again explores the meanest, sleaziest, and most hypocritical side of an educated and respected bourgeois on the outside but insidious and abhorrent on the inside like few others. In this sense, the character of Don Lope stands as the, at times, most pathetic of all those played by Rey under the direction of the Aragonese director. More than the previous Don Jaime, more even (as unthinkable as it is) than the subsequent ambassador of Miranda Rafael Acosta in "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" or the frustrated and impotent Mathieu in "That Obscure Object of Desire". Moreover, the two supporting characters represented by the caretaker Saturna and her deaf-mute son Saturno cannot be forgotten. Consequently, Rey here at his peak and Deneuve simply breathtaking, as always in her capacity.

Another essential masterpiece by this authentic and unique genius who, like few, has marked the history of cinema.

"We, enemies of injustice, of hypocrisy, and of the metal God"...sure.