Somewhere between the innocent girl and the not so innocent mistress is the bizarre, sensuous story of Tristana
Overview
As a young woman, Tristana is orphaned and taken under the guardianship of Don Lope, a respected member of the community, who takes advantage of his innocent charge. When Tristana falls in love with artist Horacio, she must learn to be more assertive in order to achieve independence from her nefarious guardian, or her blossoming relationship with Horacio is doomed.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.8/10
IMDb: 7.4/10
Letterboxd: 3.71/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Metacritic: 93
TMDB: 7.2/10
Director
Luis Buñuel
Production
Época Films, Talía Films, Selenia Cinematografica, Les Films Corona
Cast
Catherine Deneuve, Fernando Rey, Franco Nero, Lola Gaos, Antonio Casas, Jesús Fernández, Vicente Soler, José Calvo, Fernando Cebrián, Antonio Ferrandis, José María Caffarel, Cándida Losada, Joaquín Pamplona, Mary Paz Pondal, Juanjo Menéndez, José Blanch, Sergio Mendizábal, Adriano Domínguez, Aldo Sambrell, Alfredo Santacruz
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, bleak Buñuel melodrama that turns a domestic power imbalance into something slyly funny, cruel, and unsettling. It’s less overtly surreal than some of his work, but the satirical bite, gothic atmosphere, and Catherine Deneuve’s icy transformation make it memorable.
Best for
Buñuel completists
Viewers who like dark social satire
Fans of psychologically tense melodrama
People interested in gender and power dynamics
Art-house viewers who enjoy dry, ironic humor
Skip if
You want a warm or emotionally reassuring drama
You dislike bleak, manipulative characters
You prefer plot-driven realism without surreal detours
You need a fast-paced or highly accessible film
Overview
Tristana is one of Buñuel’s most caustic studies of power, desire, and social respectability. What begins as a seemingly classical melodrama steadily reveals itself as a poisoned domestic arrangement, where affection, duty, and control are impossible to separate. The film’s calm surface only makes its cruelty sharper.
Worth noting
Catherine Deneuve gives the story its cold center, moving from vulnerability to resolve with a performance that feels both restrained and quietly defiant. Fernando Rey is equally effective as a man whose public dignity masks private rot. Buñuel keeps the tone detached enough to make the absurdities sting harder, and the occasional surreal image lands like a moral joke.
Bottom line
It may not be the most immediately crowd-pleasing Buñuel, but it is one of the most precise. The film’s interest lies in how thoroughly it exposes the hypocrisy of patriarchy, religion, and bourgeois manners without ever sounding like a lecture. It’s elegant, bitter, and uncomfortably funny.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (4★) · 164 likes
RESEÑA EN ESPAÑOL AQUI
ACTION! - LUIS BUNUEL: BETWEEN SOCIAL REALISM AND SURREALISM
On this rewatch, the film didn’t quite hit me the same way it did five years ago, though I still found plenty to enjoy. It’s fun to see Buñuel returning to his soapy, melodramatic roots, this time filtered through the brand of modern absurdism he was increasingly leaning into during this period. Themes of love, jealousy, and gender politics are all in play, wrapped in a tone… more
spap1 (4★) · 150 likes
Laws always favour men, my dear.
how can one have such power over another’s life?
it’s a question we might seem to ask ourselves often in terms of politicians, but in the domestic realm it holds just as much significance as in the public. many of us don’t realise, but we are all constantly subject to the messes of the befuddled thing that is the human psychology.
we often may feel ourselves losing sanity, losing moments where we can simply… more
Alice Stoehr (2.5★) · 146 likes
Given Buñuel's knack for getting inside bourgeois "normal" and revealing it as perverse, I wasn't too surprised by the film's immersion in aristocratic decorum, and the story's quasi-gothic intricacies do leave some striking impressions: There's a nightmare in which Fernando Rey's head acts as a bell clapper, for example, and late in the film we hear the sound of Catherine Deneuve's crutches thudding across a hallway. But despite these sensory morsels, so much of Tristana is disappointingly dry. It seems… more Given Buñuel's knack for getting inside bourgeois "normal" and revealing it as perverse, I wasn't too surprised by the film's immersion in aristocratic decorum, and the story's quasi-gothic intricacies do leave some striking impressions: There's a nightmare in which Fernando Rey's head acts as a bell clapper, for example, and late in the film we hear the sound of Catherine Deneuve's crutches thudding across a hallway. But despite these sensory morsels, so much of Tristana is disappointingly dry. It seems… more
Slig001 (3★) · 106 likes
Luis Buñuel's story of a relationship between a wealthy upper class man and the young woman who came under his guardianship after being orphaned as a child. Tristana is an oddly surreal and very bleak black comedy, which offers criticism of the church, the bourgeois and society. Fernando Rey stars as Don Lope; a man respected by society despite his dubious moral compass. Catherine Deneuve is the young woman under his charge. He seeks to act as both father and… more Luis Buñuel's story of a relationship between a wealthy upper class man and the young woman who came under his guardianship after being orphaned as a child. Tristana is an oddly surreal and very bleak black comedy, which offers criticism of the church, the bourgeois and society. Fernando Rey stars as Don Lope; a man respected by society despite his dubious moral compass. Catherine Deneuve is the young woman under his charge. He seeks to act as both father and… more
Cormac 👑 (4★) · 99 likes
I could (happily) watch Catherine Deneuve plotting and scheming to get back at her abusive bastard of a ‘husband’ all day long.
Maybe my favourite Buñuel. But having said that, we’ve never exactly seen eye to eye. Although, now I’m more keen to rectify that than ever. It’s funny. For a movie so uncharacteristically free of that lyrical-nightmare surrealism, this felt his most dream-like to me. Unshakable stuff right here.