Tristana

A film from the latter part of Luis Buñuel's career, Tristana displays the director's customary disdain for the middle classes and Catholicism, though it lacks his usual sly humour. Tristana places the post-Belle De Jour Catherine Deneuve at the heart of a power struggle to which her youth and attractiveness have inadvertently given rise.

In the film's opening, the newly orphaned Tristana becomes the ward of the elderly Don Lope (Rey), a staunch socialist with an eye for the ladies who soon takes advantage of his authority to seduce her.

In her virginal innocence, Tristana is lured into an affair. Lope claims to be her guardian, lover, father and husband all at once, switching from a liberal sexual partner who declares that they are both free spirits, to a demanding patriarch who wants her to account for her every move. As soon as Tristana becomes aware of her sadomasochistic predicament she seeks freedom, liberating herself from domesticity onto the streets of Toledo, where she falls in love with a young yet largely uninspiring artist (Nero).

Not only does Tristana's quest for self-fulfilment upset Lope, but she soon turns bitter after realising how he's exploited her, prompting a reversal in the power dynamic that has dictated their relationship so far. Despite Buñuel's amusing cynicism, it's this struggle for power that forms the axis upon which Tristana turns, regardless of the film's more surreal and political moments, or its implausible plot lines. Not as gripping as some of Buñuel's more acclaimed works, Tristana is nonetheless captivating. Through Lupe's lust, Tristana becomes a cornered animal whose only chance for freedom lies in revenge, and we can only hope she succeeds.