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El gran manipulador. Buñuel had his knives out for the middle classes and the Church at the best of times, but it’s always a delight to see him grinding his axe with the utmost relish and a heavy dose of sarcasm. Viridiana (1961) and The Exterminating Angel (1962) are prime examples of this savagery. The first was Buñuel’s response to being asked back from exile to Franco’s Spain, free to make any film he wished. As a polite thank you he fashioned the tale of a nun who is called out of the convent to her ailing uncle’s house, only to be tricked, abused, and have all her religious virtues thrown back in her face. This enraged the establishment, not to mention the Vatican, but Buñuel didn’t care; he’d packed his bags and headed for Mexico already. There he made one of his greatest films, The Exterminating Angel, about a freakish dinner party in which the guests (posh guests, of course) find themselves unable to leave, and descend into depravity over the days that follow. Buñuel was probably one of the greatest manipulators of cinema, such was his ability to make controversial, thought-provoking, sinister, sexy, and funny films like these. Viridiana and The Exterminating Angel, out now on Arrow Films.
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