"Viridiana" is one of his most famous films, perhaps on par with the short film "Andalusian Dog". It was with this film that I began to get acquainted with his work.
Viridiana's uncle, who has provided his niece with training, is eager to see her in his castle before she gets her nun haircut. In fact, the uncle has long been in love with his niece, as she looks very much like his ex-wife, who has already died. Viridiana takes all this into bayonets and is going to leave, but already at the entrance to the bus she is overtaken by terrible news.
The film is very religious. It is all imbued with a religious spirit. There is a lot of spirituality in him. But that’s not the main theme of the film. It’s actually as simple as the movie itself. She's been in a lot of other movies before, but she's done particularly well here. Although, in fact, there are still several of them, and all are very important:
Class inequality in society. Much of the storyline is devoted to this topic, and the end is also connected with it. Viridiana, in her hearty kindness, brings a dozen homeless people into the house. And almost the entire film shows us how they are bullied by the employees of another co-owner of the house, their humiliations are clearly shown.
The greed of the human soul. Again, it's all about these poor homeless people. They seem to be so overwhelmed by the existing reality that even the generous Viridiana they do not want, or simply cannot trust, which is probably why they just want to take revenge on the whole world in her person. They can no longer be corrected, they are already “different”, and no matter how much Viridiana tried to create her own social system in her part of the house, no matter how much she tried to create her own monastery, where they will eat, work and pray on a schedule, she failed.
As I said, the film is very religious. All this is expressed in the person of Viridiana, who, as I said, is trying to make this world a little better. It expresses all the warm, kind, soulful, in general, all the good that is in this film. Again, the film puts a contradiction in the face of her uncle, in which all indifference to religion, and to the whole world in general, is expressed.
As you can see, the film was very contradictory. Especially for me as a believer. The film touches on a lot of themes, very important, which were in many other films, but in isolation, and here they are combined. He is very informative, reveals many holy truths, but, nevertheless, they seem to me already known to every person. Original