TRISTANA
Tristana is a 1970 Spanish film directed by Luis Buñuel (1900 – 1983). Based on the eponymous novel by Benito Pérez Galdós, it stars Catherine Deneuve and Fernando Rey and was shot in Toledo, Spain.
The story is set in the late 1920s to early 1930s. Tristana is an orphan adopted by nobleman don Lope Garrido. Don Lope falls in love with her and thus treats her as wife as well as daughter from the age of 19. But, by age 21 Tristana starts finding her voice, to demand to study music, art and other subjects with which she wishes to become independent. She meets the young artist Horacio Díaz, falls in love, and eventually leaves Toledo to live with him. When she falls ill, she returns to don Lope.
Buñuel wanted Tristana to be his triumphant return to Spain after living exiled in Mexico for several decades. Buñuel travelled to Spain in the spring of 1969 to begin work on the film, and was immediately sidetracked by the Spanish censors. Spain's Franco government made it difficult for Buñuel to get his films approved, but it finally was allowed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF NOVEL
Benito Pérez Galdós (1843 – 1920) was a Spanish realist novelist, considered second only to Cervantes in stature as a Spanish novelist. He was the leading literary figure in 19th century Spain.
Galdós is critical of the Catholic Church as a dominant force in Spanish cultural life. He attacked what he saw as abuses of entrenched and dogmatic religious power rather than religious faith or Christianity per se. In fact, the need for faith is a very important feature in many of his novels and there are many sympathetic portraits of priests and nuns.
 |
| Benito Pérez Galdós BY Joaquín Sorolla |
