Viridiana

Viridiana is a 1961 Spanish-Mexican film directed by Luis Buñuel and produced by Gustavo Alatriste. It is loosely based on the 1895 novel Halma by Benito Pérez Galdós. The film was the co-winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. In a 2016 poll of 350 experts organized by Spanish film magazine Caimán Cuadernos de Cine, it was voted the best Spanish film of all time, with 227 votes. Plot Before taking her final vows as a nun, Viridiana is told to pay a visit to her only living relative, an uncle who paid for her education and upkeep. This is Don Jaime, a recluse with a decaying mansion and estate who is looked after by a servant named Ramona. On her last night there, Don Jaime reveals that his wife (who looked exactly like Viridiana) died in their bed on their wedding night and begs Viridiana to wear the wedding dress and veil that he has lovingly preserved. After drugging her coffee, he carries her to the bed and is about to rape her when he regains control of himself. In the morning he says that she cannot now return to the convent because she is no longer a virgin, but she packs her things and flees. Although he calls out that it was a lie and begs her to stay, she is waiting at a bus stop when the police find her and take her back to the mansion. Don Jaime has hanged himself from a tree, leaving a will that divides his assets between Viridiana and an illegitimate son named Jorge. Deciding that she cannot now live as a nun, Viridiana resolves instead to help those in need and collects vagrants, who she houses and feeds in the outbuildings. Jorge arrives with Lucía, a girl friend, and throws himself into renovating the neglected land and buildings, as well as starting a clandestine relationship with Ramona. Bored by rustic isolation and jealous of Viridiana, who Jorge would like to add to his conquests, Lucía leaves. One night when Jorge and Viridiana have gone to town on business with Ramona, the beggars break into the mansion. Initially they just pry and pocket things but then decide to stage a banquet, complete with group photograph to the sound of the Hallelujah Chorus in a parody of The Last Supper, which descends into a drunken orgy of sex and destruction. When the owners return, most of the beggars flee but two of the men capture Jorge and Viridiana, tying him up while one starts raping Viridiana at knife-point. As the other waits his turn, Jorge persuades him with cash to kill the rapist. The police arrive, fetched by Ramona.