TRISTANA

 The perfect companion piece to "Viridiana". Bunuel's later "Tristana" is also about a virginal young girl, (a superb Catherine Deneuve), corrupted by an older man, (once again, the great Fernando Rey). Although she gives herself to him willingly, it's an act that makes her both bitter and vengeful but while "Viridiana" had a mordant streak of humor running through it, this is a much darker affair. It was adapted by Bunuel and Julio Alejandro from the Benito Perez Galdos novel and it remains one of the cruelest films about women that the cinema has given us.

Tristana is a complex character and one who is very difficult to empathize with. Was she ever a victim or was she always much more knowing than she first appears and, despite the tragedies that befall her, she is never sympathetic or likable. Both Deneuve and Rey are terrific; as Tristana's younger lover, Franco Nero is slightly less wooden than usual, which is a blessing of sorts and, at least, he never upsets the film's equilibrium. This may be an old man's film, stripped of all artifice but it remains one of its director's finest works.