VIRIDIANA and THE HUNTER
This
week’s double bill screenings look at creative questioning of the state with
one of Spain's most famous exiles, surrealist filmmaker Luis Bunuel’s
VIRIDIANA. Denounced by the Vatican and Franco’s government and banned from
release in Spain; Franco’s attempts to get VIRIDIANA withdrawn from competition
at Cannes failed, and it went on to win the PALM D’OR in 1961. Bunuel’s
stinging attack on religious obsession and the Catholic Church and its
principles is seen as a social as well as a political indictment on Franco's
Spain, Bunuel uses the fate of an idealistic novice nun Viridiana determined to
keep her faith while those closes to her attempt to strip her of it as a peg to
hang his many visual and intellectual arguments. The use of religious
iconography underlined with political subtext drew the critics in hailing it as
visual masterpiece, noted as being one of his greatest works and listed in the
top 50 best films ever made this is a must see for any film lover. Next up is
THE HUNTER from Iranian filmmaker Rafi Pitts, set amongst the political
backdrop of Tehran Pitts cleverly weaves together an engrossing thriller in the
style of the Jean-Pierre Melville using the iconic political imagery of the
70’s American political thrillers such as the PARALLAX VIEW and the
CONVERSATION with a great punk soundtrack it totally subverts the genera.
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