Audience Member
As with all Bunuel's movies I cannot in good conscience rate his work above average. On one hand this particular story "Tristana "Is filmed in a beautiful Vintage time period .Its authentic Victorian homestead ,costumes,and 1920's era setting is depicted extremely well. However the downside to all of Bunuel's work is his nauseating elements of perversion personified in the elderly males role. Here we have a man who puts on a facade as a father figure to an orphaned young woman only to take advantage of her by forcing himself on her as a means for control. As time passes resentment and bitterness simmer to a boiling point beneath the surface .Tristanas lack of freedom to choose her own path gets derailed continuously by the selfish motives of Don Lupe. Naturally his motives become well known throughout town which in turn leaves little room for dignity to be restored to his Ward. Despite her attempts to escape his malevolent clutches , unfortunate circumstances trap her into an unloving marriage. Anger and bitterness are suppressed to the point that a second viewing might be required in order to fully understand the feelings between the characters. In the end we are still left with a lackluster climax that quite frankly never delivers a worthwhile message. It may pass the time to sit through but its still a major disappointment to watch.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
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William L
Like most of Buñuel's output, Tristana carries a loathing for the trappings of social convention, particularly the stuffy conservatism that had long been intertwined in the culture of his native Spain. Rey's Don Lope feigns superiority, swooning in his own gentility and supposed love of the downtrodden while selling his possessions to ensure that he doesn't have to actually work. Into his arms falls Deneuve's Tristana, an innocent girl who seeks simple happiness but is gradually turned to bitterness by Lope's own perverse machinations in their strange adopted daughter/wife dynamic. It's bleak and anti-establishment, but it's also patently melodramatic for much of its runtime, feeling less profound than it does as if it is simply going through the paces (at least until Deneuve's return as a resentful opportunist plotting revenge using Lope's honor and age against him, where the audience is called to measure past misconduct against present retribution; that's some powerful stuff).
It's full of careful detail and carries the hallmarks of its acclaimed director's style, but just feels more reserved than you might expect a Buñuel film to be; whether that is the result of the director maturing into more subtle storytelling or losing power is up to you. (3.5/5)
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
08/27/21
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Audience Member
More Bunel exploration of human motivation, love, betrayal, dreams and reality
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/30/23
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Audience Member
I can understand why this film is considered a milestone but I can't say it is one of my favourites by Buñuel, despite its undisputable artistic quality.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
Full Review
s r
The film makes important points about conventions, but it was a bit dry. 1001 movies to see before you die.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The greatest filmmakers are a step ahead of the rest, they are aware of the associations an audience will have with the most minute detail. They are sensitive to these details and do not overlook them. When I saw Bunuel's El Bruto, I was not confident his mind worked this way. But Tristana proved a different experience entirely, nothing about it felt like the same filmmaker. In fact, thus far in my experience with Bunuel, he's the only auteur I can't identify through the three films I've seen, those two plus Andalusian Dog. They are so various in their entire approach - content, photography, editing, all around form - that nothing thus far makes me go: Bunuel.
Tristana's beauty is the first instance of association we make in our mind. We see her, we see the old man Lope, already we wonder if he will make advances on her. He will, however disturbing the idea may be given he's her guardian.
Poor Saturno thinks that now because he and Tristana are both handicapped, he has a better shot with her. His advances fail. Can't he just get a peak? What's next for him - will he go on living? As soon as he bends down to pick up that rock, my mind automatically assumes he'll be persistent in his advance and ask her to flash him. She does so, backing him into the garden where he presumably masturbates to the image. I was hoping more would be made of this relationship, but it suggests she is carefree of the consequences to anything. However, she's already been here, so it's nothing new. It is a statement that she has no loyalty to Lope, even if he took her in sick.
There's a great shot of Saturno wheeling Tristana through a courtyard past a baby carriage while she's eating a cone - she recognizes the association, that some part of her is lapping the luxury of being a big baby now.
This film is somewhat an exercise in cruelty, that the love in a man's heart is superficial. When Tristana becomes sick, her new lover, the artist Horatio, brings her back to Lope for care. Lope accepts and wants Horatio kept away, but when he finds out she has to amputate her leg, he tries bringing Horatio back into the picture. This scenario fails, Horatio checking his watch, anticipating his visitation time being up as she tries to entertain him with a piano suite. She senses he doesn't love her, and pushes him away. Now she's all to Lope, who still wants to be with her, but who she does not feel anything for besides what she knows she can use him for.
The end is confusing. I can't say exactly for sure what we're looking at. The dream of Lope's swinging bell-rung head recurs, mixed in with other replaying images from the film, and finally back where we started, the field where they arrived with Saturno, but instead of entering, they're exiting.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/12/23
Full Review
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