Terry Gilliam back on form with a stun­ning per­for­mance by Jode­lle Fer­land. I feel like a per­son of few words today so I shall just say that I really loved this film and then show you some beau­ti­ful pictures:

Now that’s what I’m tal­king about… “Somthing’s wrong with me” “It’s a bee sting” “That bitch is hard­core”. I love a good B-movie gore-fest.

Starts off inte­res­ting but quickly falls away into a sloppy sen­ti­men­tal love story with pre­dic­ta­ble plot arcs and dia­lo­gue that feigns inte­llect; the book — the sub­ject of the film — sounds and feels like those dis­count romance novels you pick up at ser­vice sta­tions. I had high hopes for this after the first ten minu­tes, but after an hour it felt like that appa­lling Sarah Miche­lle Gellar film “Simply Irre­sis­ti­ble” but with less magic and fairy dust. In fact, with each second this film grows expo­nen­tially worse and it conc­lu­des in the most soppy and pathe­tic man­ner pos­si­ble, betra­ying the morals and story­te­lling pro­wess the film wri­ters tell them­sel­ves just moments befo­rehand. Gah.

But I’m sure your girl­friends would love it.

Using my free WHSmith’s online ren­tal ser­vice I borro­wed Luis Buñuel’s Viri­diana. As a Chris­tian the sub­ject mat­ter pro­ved cha­llen­ging, but I do not regret watching the movie — for faith is merely a belief when left uncha­llen­ged (neverthe­less, I am not a Catho­lic and this pro­bably hel­ped — the movie itself has been con­dem­ned by the Vatican).

To sum­ma­rise the plot, without unduly giving away any of the story­line I refer to infofreak’s sum­mary as pos­ted on IMDB:

Beau­ti­ful and devout Viri­diana (Sil­via Pinal in an impres­sive per­for­mance) is about to take her final vows as a nun, and enter a con­vent. At the urging of her Mother Supe­rior she takes a short break to visit her estran­ged Uncle and bene­fac­tor Don Jaime (Bunuel regu­lar, the always won­der­ful Fer­nando Rey). Reluc­tantly she does so thin­king it will be the last time she sees him before devo­ting her life to God. Don Jaime, a com­plex man, has other plans for Viri­diana — he wants to take her as his wife. What follows is unpre­dic­ta­ble, fas­ci­na­ting and an almost per­fect piece of film making. Highly con­tro­ver­sial in its day, and accu­sed of blasphemy, it may not be as shoc­king to our cyni­cal, secu­lar eyes, but it still packs a punch, and is highly recom­men­ded. One of Luis Bunuel’s grea­test achievements.

I agree with or empathise with many of this film’s finer points and believe that rather than assaul­ting the chris­tian teachings it high­lights the intri­ca­cies and dif­fi­cul­ties of inter­pre­ting and follo­wing them without pro­per gui­dance. The film’s por­tra­yal of the “poor-afflicted” that fail to change their ways amid out­pou­rings of gene­ro­sity is scathing and without sorrow but in no way dehu­ma­ni­sing. It is these ele­ments that create the most com­pe­lling cinema in the ‘Last Sup­per’ fall out; from laugh­ter to debauchery and vio­lence and back again.

Rea­ding into the his­tory of Spain and the situa­tion that led to this film’s birth I have come to unders­tand the mes­sage within. Loo­sely, for the sym­bo­lism and hid­den mea­ning wea­ved throughout could be dis­cus­sed only tho­roughly in a short book, is that pros­pe­rity and life comes through dedi­ca­tion and hard work by those that wish to make something of them­sel­ves. And that a life spent hel­ping those that want it but do not res­pect it, is the har­der and less rewar­ding (both to your­self and to society) path, one des­ti­ned for betra­yal and never-ending hardship.

I per­so­nally res­pect those that dedi­cate their life to the hardships of others, sha­ring the bur­dens in attempt to reim­burse others los­ses. I don’t believe Buñuel’s por­tra­yal of the rotten’s ina­bi­lity to change to be true, yet it does hold weight with a num­ber of human traits-the sins of pride, greed and lust being prime exam­ples. I do howe­ver agree that this path of unbrid­led gene­ro­sity to ever­yone and anyone can be dama­ging and is cer­tainly not the correct route for social reco­very and reju­ve­na­tion. Ins­tead res­pect should be given to those that are capa­ble and worthy of making it on their own, and care given to those that fall by the way side. In neither case should one pre­side over the other — fin­ding the best balance seems the key to social and eco­no­mic pros­pe­rity for everyone.

To wrap this up I couldn’t find a clip from the film but Goo­gle Video has a fas­ci­na­ting inter­view which I have embed­ded below: