Watch Tristana For Free

One of my all time favorites.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

a simple story. nothing more. same themes of Bunuel universe. same clash between innocence and impulses. the air of ancient Greek tragedy, in which all is leading by faith. impressive performances of Catherine Deneuve and Fernando Rey. the transformation of Tristana . and the ambiguous status of victim. it is a confession - film. not the confession of characters or director but one of the viewer.because it is good occasion to discover yourself front to the spider web of a story about sensuality and cruelty and challenges , in the atmosphere imposed by Bunuel as clothes for each word and gesture. a film who impose the cold air as the protective window.

It is true that Spanish film 'Tristana' is considered an important work in the cinematographic career of Luis Buñuel. It has all the necessary ingredients to make it extremely appealing to viewers namely an excellent cast of versatile actors: Fernando Rey and Catherine Deneuve. For making it, Buñuel chose to adapt realist novelist Benito Perez Galdoz's eponymous novel. However, despite all these strong points, Tristana lacks the criticism and sharpness which one finds in most films made by Buñuel especially films in which he has made mockery of organized religion and its practices. Tristana does not succeed much as it appears as a plain drama. The sad thing is that criticism of Spanish nobility and its members' lifestyle is missing from this film. What viewers get to see are a series of dramatic situations which unroll in quick succession. This is one reason why even no commentary has been made about the role of freedom for Spanish women who wanted to get rid of dominating male influence in their lives. This is strange as it was something which Buñuel wanted to portray in his film.

Everything about this movie is excellent, unless you are looking for lots of special effects and dislike storytelling. Concerns a young lady who has become an orphan somewhere in Spain between the Great Wars who goes to live with an old bachelor. He rejects the mores of society and preaches freedom of thought and action to his friends but tends to be rather traditional and overbearing when it suits him. It pleases him to control his young ward and treat her like a wife. In time she meets an artist who she likes and things get more complicated. If you laugh, things are funny, if you are enraged or afraid for the characters, then it is drama. In this kind of slice-of-life movie you can pick and choose who to root for. Story flows beautifully like a good novel.

Sometimes hilarious, often dream like surreal drama tells about a young woman, heavenly beautiful and innocent in the beginning, bitter and pitiless but still heavenly beautiful sans one leg in the end. Catherine Deneuve gave perhaps her best performance as an orphaned 19 years old girl who after her mother's death has been adapted by the aristocratic free-thinking atheist, Don Lope Garrido in absolutely fantastic performance by Bunuel's favorite leading man in the latter half of the director's career, Fernando Rey (That Obscure Object of Desire, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Tristana, Viridiana). Don Lope is a man of honor, a gentleman who believes in those of ten commandments that don't have to do with sex. He also takes pride in having not worked a day in his life because the only work is noble that is done "with pleasure". He rather would sell for a fraction of their real cost the pieces of art that had belonged to his family for generations. This is the man Tristana comes to live with. Very soon he would seduce her and make her his mistress justifying it with the words that she is better off this way than being on the streets. Don Lope is a preacher of freedom in the relationships between a man and a woman and for him, "marital bliss has sickly odor". Young Tristana is a good student and eventually she chooses to leave Don Lope and to run off with a young and attractive artist (Franco Nero). From this point on, the movie takes an unexpected and unusual turn..."Tristana", based on a famous romance novel written by Benito Perez Galdos was adapted by Bunuel into simple on the surface but incredibly rich, complex, funny, in one word, brilliant dissection of moral degradation as only Bunuel could make it. The film is also a portrayal of a strong and beautiful woman who wishes to survive and be independent even if it goes against the established rules of behavior of her time.P.S. I wonder if Rainer Werner Fassbinder had seen "Tristana" and if he had, would it give him any ideas about his own trilogy of strong, beautiful, independent, and corrupted women trying to survive in the post-war Germany?