Viridiana - Reviews
"It's a masterpiece that still resonates after all these years as a powerful philosophical film challenging the church's corrupt ideology.
Dennis Schwartz
OZUS' WORLD MOVIE REVIEWS
"As joltingly brilliant today as on its first release"
Hal Erickson
ALL MOVIE GUIDE
"Luis Buñuel returned to his native Spain to create this 1961 masterpiece, which marked his rebirth as a filmmaker of international repute."
By Dave Kehr
CHICAGO READER
"A story overflowing with black humour and imagery rich in symbolism. This burlesque mixture of sensations presents a riveting atmosphere of abnormality and morbidly fascinating aesthetics. The combination has the power to cause ecstasy thanks to the films bold structure within its ambiguous and irreverent viewpoint."
EL CRITICÓN
A Masterpiece from Buñuel. A fantastic cast and an irreverent, surreal, dark and tragic script which creates an unforgettable film.
Fernando Morales
EL PAÍS
"Intense and bitter picture.
(...) It is stringently directed and expertly played.
(...) As usual in Señor Buñuel's pictures, the black-and-white photography is artful and true"
Bosley Crowther
NEW YORK TIMES
"A movie that satisfies you on every level.
Buñuel is the one of the greatest of all filmmakers. He opens your mind, and makes you feel alive and comfortable, as if you were dreaming. See Viridiana, and all other movies will seem to be missing something from then on."
Jeffrey M. Anderson
COMBUSTIBLE CELLULOID
"Viridiana is quintessential Buñuel: a perfect entryway to his work, and a microcosm of his contradictory universe of the beautiful and the grotesque."
Jay Antani
FILMCRITIC
"Brilliantly carpentered offbeat pic is sure to be controversial.
Bunuel has welded the thesping into a perfect whole that defies singling out any for special praise."
VARIETY
"Viridiana is the most atypical of Luis Buñuel's films. If he had set out deliberately to antagonize and shock a whole school of faith, he certainly did it in this film, which, while it was his undoubted masterpiece, concealed a bomb that made it impossible for him ever to return to his native land, Spain."
Witt Bodeen
FILM REFERENCE
Dennis Schwartz
OZUS' WORLD MOVIE REVIEWS
"As joltingly brilliant today as on its first release"
Hal Erickson
ALL MOVIE GUIDE
"Luis Buñuel returned to his native Spain to create this 1961 masterpiece, which marked his rebirth as a filmmaker of international repute."
By Dave Kehr
CHICAGO READER
"A story overflowing with black humour and imagery rich in symbolism. This burlesque mixture of sensations presents a riveting atmosphere of abnormality and morbidly fascinating aesthetics. The combination has the power to cause ecstasy thanks to the films bold structure within its ambiguous and irreverent viewpoint."
EL CRITICÓN
A Masterpiece from Buñuel. A fantastic cast and an irreverent, surreal, dark and tragic script which creates an unforgettable film.
Fernando Morales
EL PAÍS
"Intense and bitter picture.
(...) It is stringently directed and expertly played.
(...) As usual in Señor Buñuel's pictures, the black-and-white photography is artful and true"
Bosley Crowther
NEW YORK TIMES
"A movie that satisfies you on every level.
Buñuel is the one of the greatest of all filmmakers. He opens your mind, and makes you feel alive and comfortable, as if you were dreaming. See Viridiana, and all other movies will seem to be missing something from then on."
Jeffrey M. Anderson
COMBUSTIBLE CELLULOID
"Viridiana is quintessential Buñuel: a perfect entryway to his work, and a microcosm of his contradictory universe of the beautiful and the grotesque."
Jay Antani
FILMCRITIC
"Brilliantly carpentered offbeat pic is sure to be controversial.
Bunuel has welded the thesping into a perfect whole that defies singling out any for special praise."
VARIETY
"Viridiana is the most atypical of Luis Buñuel's films. If he had set out deliberately to antagonize and shock a whole school of faith, he certainly did it in this film, which, while it was his undoubted masterpiece, concealed a bomb that made it impossible for him ever to return to his native land, Spain."
Witt Bodeen
FILM REFERENCE