In "Nazarin" in 1959, the devout Christian Nazarin was considered by two ignorant women to be after the coming of Jesus, although he could not redeem them and the suffering of everyone.
But at least at the end of the film, Nasarin's two changes of "rejection/acceptance" implied that he once again defeated doubt with faith. Although Christianity could not save all living beings, it at least saved himself.
However, in 1961's "Velitiana", director Buñuel's thinking about religion was completely caught in a dilemma of suspicion.
Religious beliefs are naturally useless for poor living beings, but for the originally pious nun, Verityna, she is no longer "my lord eternal". She seems to be unable to save herself.
This excellent work that helped Buñuel capture the Palme d’Or at Cannes is actually Buñuel’s own thinking and cognition of Catholicism.
He was born in a small village called Calanda in Spain. Bunuel once described Calanda in his book:
"In Kalanda, no one will change anything. The old way of life, the old order, everything is passed on from parents to children, and passed down from generation to generation. No one knows what is meant by change and progress."
The stagnant childhood memories are in Buñuel, which is inseparable from the Catholic order and beliefs. Before going to Madrid to go to university, Buñuel has been immersed in the Catholic culture.
And this kind of director's own brand is precisely projected into the film "Velidia".
In the film, the protagonist Veridiana is also a girl who grew up in a monastery. She has no doubts about the doctrine of Christianity.
However, the uncle suddenly wanted to see her, and her peaceful monastic life was broken.
Verityanna didn't have much contact with her uncle, even though her uncle had always been a sponsor of her studies and life in the monastery.
With reluctance and incomprehension, she spent a few days with her elderly uncle. When she was about to return to the monastery, the uncle offered to want Verityanna to stay with him forever and become his wife.
Bunuel arranged an incest and abnormal erotic relationship here, although the relationship between this character was involved in his previous "Girls" and later "The Beauty of the Day", but this time it seems more It is uncomfortable, and the moral impact is stronger.
In Buñuel’s images, although the elderly uncle is infatuated with Verityanna, it is not the brains that prompted him to act, but the nostalgia for his ex-wife.
In his eyes, the charm of Veridiana is that she and her ex-wife are so similar in appearance that he took out his wife's previous corset and tried it on. In the mirror, he was like the tragic figure who recalled the country in Li Yu's poems.
But after exhausting all the means and still unable to keep this beautiful niece, the uncle finally hanged himself. He left all his property to his former illegitimate son and Veridiana.
He thought he could use wealth to redeem his soul and let Verityanna forgive him. However, as a nun, Verityanna made a secular choice and she did not choose to forgive.
She used all her inherited property to help homeless people, beggars, elderly prostitutes and the disabled.
She mistakenly thought that she had been raped by her uncle and lost her virginity, so she could not continue to be a nun, but she still chose the nun's behavior and became a secular "Mother".
But Buñuel did not choose the development of the "utopia" story here, letting Veridiana use "unjust money" to redeem all the "righteous people" at the lower levels, not only allowing them to have nothing to worry about, but also to do their best. It can realize the value of life and build a paradise with Veridiana as the center of faith.
Bunuel chose to confront the secular and religious, and let the "evil" of the lower class invade the "good" of the upper class.
In Buñuel’s view, those poor and starved lower class people have inertia to enjoy pleasure. Once they taste the taste of abundance from extreme poverty, they encounter a good thing that they can do whatever they want. Good "Mother".
Therefore, they only need to pretend to be grateful, be motivated, and do whatever they want, because they have a natural protective barrier: I am a poor man.
Once they seized the opportunity, such as the illegitimate son and Velitiana in the film were not in the large estate, they began to behave nonsense, using the loopholes of religion to eat and drink like gluttons, and overcompensate for their poor past.
In order to show this absurd relief and excessive profligacy, Bunuel chose to place the vulgar gimmick on the elegant parody.
In the climax part of the film, the gluttonous group planned to take a group photo in order to commemorate that everyone was able to eat at the high-end dining table. When everyone was worried about not having a camera, a stray woman said: her mother gave her a natural camera .
At this time, there are many homeless people lined up on the side of the dining table in the picture. They have different poses, but the composition is exactly the same as the masterpiece "The Last Supper" by Da Vinci.
Just as we felt this pungent irony, the stray woman lifted her skirt and turned the private parts of her lower body toward the crowd, indicating that her "natural camera" had just opened the "shutter" to take the picture. A group photo of everyone.
This kind of anarchist chaos displayed by the lower class after the absence of the power-holders (Velitiana and illegitimate children) is inseparable from Bunuel's early experience.
When he was a young man, he experienced the Spanish Civil War. At that time, the Spanish Communist Party, fascists, and anarchists wrestle with each other. As a surrealist, he was originally more inclined to anarchist group.
But as this force gradually gained power, their lawless and wanton sabotage made Bunuel frustrated, and he hated the so-called "anarchists" ever since.
And the chaos in the last part of "Velidia" is the projection of this consciousness.
But Bunuel does not insist on expressing the moral imbalance of the lower class. He wants to use his strength to make a more concrete presentation with this irretrievable image of Catholicism. He really hopes The subject of focus is still the protagonist of the film, Verity Anna.
The girl who was almost raped by the tramp she helped her became the most tragic figure. She had lived in the monastery with the vision of being a nun for life, but was broken by the lie of her uncle.
But when she was willing to use all of her wealth and energy to help the poor, she was countered by the hungry wolf and became a farmer who awakened the winter snake.
So in the end, the thorn ring, the cross, and the holy tools used for prayer that she had obsessed with before became burnt objects in the fire. Does she still have faith?
Buñuel did not answer this question head-on, but let her knock on the door of her uncle's illegitimate child in despair.
She and this cousin, who has always been interesting to her, plan to have some fun in the evening, playing cards such as "worldly people" who will only fall in love with Aduwu.
She was finally pushed farther and farther by the image, and finally abandoned by the invisible God in a corner of the world...
This time, religion did not save anyone.
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