Luis Buñuel

Viridiana

Viridiana

Banned in Spain and denounced by the Vatican, Luis Buñuel’s irreverent vision of life as a beggar’s banquet is regarded by many as his masterpiece. In it, novice nun Viridiana does her utmost to maintain her Catholic principles, but her lecherous uncle and a motley assemblage of paupers force her to confront the limits of her idealism. Winner of the Palme d’or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, Viridiana is as audacious today as ever.

Share

Film Info

  • Spain
  • 1961
  • 90 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.66:1
  • Spanish
  • Spine #332

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Interviews with Silvia Pinal and author Richard Porton
  • Excerpts from a 1964 episode of Cinèastes de notre temps on Luis Buñuel's early career
  • U.S. release trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Plus: An essay by Michael Wood

    New cover by Eric Skillman

Purchase Options

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

DVD Box Set

50 Discs

$650.00

Out Of Print

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Interviews with Silvia Pinal and author Richard Porton
  • Excerpts from a 1964 episode of Cinèastes de notre temps on Luis Buñuel's early career
  • U.S. release trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Plus: An essay by Michael Wood

    New cover by Eric Skillman
Viridiana
Cast
Silvia Pinal
Viridiana
Fernando Rey
Don Jaime
Francisco Rabal
Don Jorge
Margarita Lozano
Ramona
Victoria Zinny
Lucia
Teresita Rabal
Rita
Credits
Director
Luis Buñuel
Screenplay
Luis Buñuel
Screenplay
Julio Alejandro
Cinematography
José F. Aguayo
Editing
Pedro del Rey
Musical direction
Gustavo Pitaluga

Related Films

1/3
2/3
3/3

Current

Luis Buñuel: Eternal Surrealist
Luis Buñuel: Eternal Surrealist

With a mixture of intuition, craft, and an endless curiosity about how cinema can be used to shock and provoke, the Spanish master left us with a rich body of work that stands as a testament to the power of surrealism.

By Adrian Martin

Features — Jan 10, 2020
Alice Rohrwacher’s Top 10
Alice Rohrwacher’s Top 10

The Cannes-prize-winning director of The Wonders and Happy as Lazzaro shares the films that inspire her, including works that allow her to “participate in true genius.”

— Dec 3, 2018
Ali Abbasi’s Top 10
Ali Abbasi’s Top 10

It’s no surprise that the director of the wildly unpredictable Border, Sweden’s entry for the best foreign-language film Oscar, has a soft spot for renegades like Pasolini, Buñuel, and Lynch.

— Nov 12, 2018
Guillermo del Toro’s Guide to the Collection
Guillermo del Toro’s Guide to the Collection

Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro shares heartfelt appreciations for eleven of his favorite films in the collection.

On the Channel — Feb 12, 2018
Talking Buñuel and Blasphemy with Chema García Ibarra
Talking Buñuel and Blasphemy with Chema García Ibarra

The Spanish filmmaker, whose short film Mystery is featured on the Criterion Channel, discusses his love for Luis Buñuel and the influence of Catholicism on his worldview.

By Andrew Chan

Interviews — Jun 7, 2017
Will Oldham’s Top 10
Will Oldham’s Top 10

Singer-songwriter and occasional film actor Will Oldham has released eighteen albums.

— Sep 30, 2014

Explore

Luis Buñuel

Writer, Director

Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel

As made clear in his seminal works Viridiana and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie—delirious screeds against, respectively, religion and social conformity—Luis Buñuel was one of cinema’s great subversives and mischief makers. He began his career as a member of the French surrealists—his first films, Un chien andalou and L’âge d’or, absurd and violently sexual scandals that met with censorship, were collaborations with Salvador Dalí. After years of working alternately in his native Spain (where the scintillating, shaming faux documentary Land Without Bread and, later, Viridiana were both banned), the United States, and Mexico, Buñuel made most of his late films in France, combining surrealist non sequiturs with attacks on the bourgeoisie, the church, and social hypocrisy in general in such masterpieces as The Milky Way, The Phantom of Liberty, and That Obscure Object of Desire.

More Luis Buñuel View All