1/28/2024 0 Comments Blasphemous viridiana![]() ![]() Still today, I do not know whether they were threatening us or directly considering us excommunicated. The Vatican, through an editorial in the Osservatore Romano, really tore into us. And what came later did not take long to occur. If the régime accepted the prize, then our backs would be covered if not, what came later would be the result. As was verified just a few hours before going to get the prize, it was truly a poisoned gift. ![]() That is how we proposed it to him, in those words, and he accepted without us having to insist. The next morning, we went to see him to propose that, bearing in mind Luis Buñuel was in Paris, it was his responsibility to accept the Palme d’Or, as the highest representative of the Spanish film world. When we found out that the prize was going to Viridiana, we went to rescue the government’s Director General of Film, José Muñoz Fontán, who, after seeing the film for the first time on the night of its screening, and the enthusiastic reaction of viewers, ran out of the Palais du Cinéma and took refuge in his hotel room. “The work of art,” the film, converted into “the object-artifact” that set off the dictatorship’s and the Vatican’s alarm bells, thanks to the spectacular media repercussion of the prize. The truth is that it moved forward and ended where everything had first started, in Cannes, with a resounding success in the literal sense of the word, with the Palme d’Or having been awarded to Viridiana. Its beginning was the story of a nearly impossible attempt. I suppose that at this stage of history, proposing a film to Luis Buñuel in that atmosphere stifled by systematic repression, unstoppable censorship and an untrusting government was not only difficult. Domingo holds a place in this history, and I would like these lines to serve to make a record of it. His fine-tuned intuition and sense of humor could only compete with Luis Buñuel’s. Those difficult years were made easier, more light-hearted and more bearable in the company of Domingo. I know that today he is completely unknown to most people, but Buñuel felt special affection for him. I would expressly like to mention Domingo Dominguín, a bullfighter, Communist and movie producer. All of us who work in film know that movies are not just made, already a great task in and of itself, but they must also be put together and prepared, and to do that sometimes you have to join forces with others. It was in this atmosphere that I proposed to Luis Buñuel that he make a movie to be filmed in Madrid, and in the month of October he wrote to me to tell me about Viridiana. Their hair will grow back anyway, and they’ll be able to comb it however they wish.” Meanwhile, the government had time to sign the “approval” of the sentence and execute Julián Grimau, a Communist, and anarchists Granados and Delgado in 1963. Given the denunciation of these events, the minister responded with disdain: “It’s no big deal. One of the humiliations suffered by the detainees consisted of cutting their hair off, and a group of female protestors even had their heads shaved. Bergamín was the first person to sign the document. One of the things which unleashed his fury was a document in which the torture to which many detainees were subjected during strikes and demonstrations in Asturias were denounced (1962). Bergamín was subjected to ceaseless persecution by then Minister of Information and Tourism, Manuel Fraga lribarne, until forcing him to leave the country. ![]() This encounter with Luis Buñuel, as with so many other exiles, was of enormous importance, and to more than just people in film: to get an idea of what things were like during the dictatorship, one need only remember José Bergamín, a writer, poet, essayist and playwright, another emblematic personage with whom Luis Buñuel coincided in Madrid, and who was forced to go back into exile. Luis Buñuel’s return took place during some difficult years of shameful silences and very notable absences, with a memory that had been broken or severely battered. I proposed to Buñuel that he come to Madrid, which he did for the summer. Luis Buñuel attended the screening of Los Golfos and hugged us as if giving us his blessing. In 1960, during the Cannes Film Festival, which we competed at with Los Golfos ( The Delinquents), the first film directed by Carlos Saura, we all but physically ran into Luis Buñuel in the elevator of the hotel where we were staying. The Disappearance of Viridiana By Pere Portabella
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