I've only watched Bunuel's short surrealist film before (I'm not sure I'm spelling it alright- Un chien Andalou?) so this was actually my first encounter with his "regular" films. I have to say I'm amazed; this film has it all.
The way I see it it is, in a way, a collision of two worlds: one very tender, sincere and pure (Virdiana) and, basically, the rest of the world. Dostoevsky said: "In every great sacrifice there's something ridiculous." And, maybe Bunuel didn't have this exact sentence in his mind, but this is what we see in the film. After not being really sure has her uncle deflowered her or not, Virdiana feels impure to go back to the monastery. We have an angel-like creature coming into the world of those who are greedy and possessed/consumed by everyday passions. Virdiana has a thorn crown which is set on fire as she sits with her cousin for a card game: for me, this represents the climax of her humanisation - in a way, I feel like she could not live with them without being dragged into their mud: as she exits her room we see a rope and it's shadow above her head: her divine nature is dead and her human, sinful side is conimg to life. Everything she did was torn and stomped on by god's people - even thought they've had completely awful lives, they are just as greedy and soulless as the rich - grand culmination is the carnevalisation of the last supper. My guess is that this was a way of saying that ideals are like Plato's world of ideas: they can only be dreamed of, but never reached, so in that process, we lose our purity and downgrade virtue. In a way, humans ofter ruin everything they touch - but, even if we're made godlike, we are not gods and thus, can we live up to those expectations?
If a movie sets out questions and messages like this, frames it in divine cinematography and truly beautiful acting: it deserves every praise it gets.
Review of Viridiana
