Plot Details: This opinion reveals everything about the movie's plot.

Tristana (1970) is a film that serves more as Luis Bunuel nostalgia than as entertainment. Filmed entirely in Madrid (studio) and Toledo (exterior), this movie is a survey of Luis Bunuel's younger days - the man before the expatriate. Before we begin, I want to make a few points:

First of all, unless you are fairly familiar with the biography, psychology, and philosophy (or lack thereof) of Don Luis Bunuel, you probably won't find Tristana entertaining - hence I'm "Not Recommending." Secondly, since there is no other way to accurately review this uneventful film, I will be giving away all major plot occurrences (giggle). Finally, I will break my own rule and tell you exactly what this film "means" because Tristana is a no-brainer and I doubt you'll be running to see it after reading this epinion.

Tristana, inspired by the novel by Benito Perez Galdos, is a psychological-drama/comedy about the evolving relationship between young Tristana (Catherine Deneuve) and her guardian Don Lope Garrido (Fernando Rey)...

Tristana is an innocent who's never been in love. In fact, when passion or love enters her life, she equates the feeling with "going mad." Sheltered by Lope, her life is lonely and her mind is a blank slate. Despite Tristana's twenty-some age, her character is absent of adult personality and filled with childlike curiosity. She dreams of the calling of Church bells - Don Lope's dismembered head is the dream bell's clapper.

Don Lope Garrido is a cynical/idealist, poor/aristocratic hypocrite.

He upholds tradition, yet yearns for Marxist reform:
"Work is a curse! That kind of work does not bring us honor, it only fills the bellies of pigs who exploit us. But the work one does from a sense of vocation - that enables men. Everyone should be able to work like that. But me... you'd have to kill me to get me to work!"

He is Tristana's guardian, yet sleeps with her:
"I'm your father and your husband - I can be one or the other as and when it suits me."

He is a sexist, yet women easily conquer him:
"If you want an honest woman, break her legs and keep her home."

Tristana has a fallout with Lope's controlling ways and runs off with a young painter. After two years, she returns to Toledo when a crippling tumor appears around her knee. Of course, Lope is eager to have her back and is even more exhilarated when a doctor tells him that Tristana's leg must be amputated. Now she can't run away!

Two years of liberation from Lope's shelter has changed our young heroine. No longer is she innocent, absent of personality, and childlike. Instead, she grew up into what Lope had been - no, even worse! Lope himself has changed, taming with age and no longer hypocritical. It's as if while Tristana gradually took on his quirks one-by-one, Lope was drained of his old personality trait-by-trait. An obvious switching of power roles. Whereas Lope used to be Tristana's prison, Tristana is now Lope's.

In the final scene (probably the only one of interest), Tristana illustrates just how nasty she has become. In the middle of the night, as Lope suffers from a heart attack, she ignores his request to call a doctor. When he collapses lifeless, she opens his bedroom window (in the middle of winter) to make sure that if the heart attack didn't kill him, the cold certainly would.

So what is the meaning of all this?

Seeing as this is one of the most low-minded of Bunuel's films, there really isn't anything to it. Everyone pretty much agrees that the "switch in power and personality" theme is the foundation of the film. Most would also agree that Bunuel lightheartedly inserted his own philosophies into the characters, showing the audience his ironies and clever deceit (specifically through the characters of young Tristana, the deaf sexually-curious servant boy, and especially Don Lope).

A few (myself included) would add that on top of those elements listed above, Tristana is also a way of Bunuel raising his cone-glass to the old Order of Toledo days. Back then (1920-1936), the core members of the Order calling themselves Toledo Knights (Luis Bunuel, Garcia Lorca, Jose Bello, Salvador Dali) would travel over to the Spanish city of Toledo to party all night long. Later, the Order of Toledo began immersing themselves in the "French" Surrealism Movement of the 1920's. The Knights made surrealism their own, inventing new "surrealist" morality systems and mannerisms, all the while fine-tuning their art. Getting to the point...

Tristana, a film shot entirely in the old Toledo Knights' stomping grounds of Toledo and Madrid, is an ode to those Order of Toledo days. It captures the "surrealist morality" vis-a-vis Don Lope's various ideologies and utterances. Secondly, Lope's friendly gatherings and tableside chats gives us a look of what an average conversation among Toledo Knights might have been like. Finally, Tristana shows us a few of the Order's passions: shoeshines, favorite sites (Saint's tomb), alcohol, and mind games among others.

If you add all three elements together--the switching roles theme, the insertion of Bunuel's philosophies, and the Order of Toledo nostalgia--you have the meaning of Tristana. There isn't much to think about here unless you wish to further examine the plot or the old Catholic fable about an amputated leg that grows back (a theme occurring frequently in Bunuel films).

If you don't know much about Bunuel's biography (especially his Toledo days and marriage with Jeanne), along with a bit of his psychology and philosophies; you will be bored to death. Its surrealism is virtually nonexistent, and its satire is weak - the only element making this film any better than Belle De Jour is the nostalgia, or joy of seeing Bunuel play within good 'ol Toledo once more (albeit through the film's characters).

If you have little or no knowledge of Bunuel as a man, or any of the other Toledo Knights (Dali and Lorca are famous in their own right), Tristana is about as entertaining as looking at a stranger's wallet-photos.

For us diehards, view once or twice and then discard. It won't be very entertaining, but in comparison to the above paragraph, at least the experience is akin to gazing at a best friend's wallet-photos.

3 STARS

Recommended: No

Viewing Format: VHS
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older