Susana (film)
Encyclopedia
Susana is a 1951 film directed by Luis Buñuel
. It is the story of a girl of questionable mental stability who escapes from incarceration and ends up at a plantation where she disrupts a working family's daily routines and chemistry.
. The heroine, Susana (Rosita Quintana
), is a beautiful inmate at a women's reformatory who escapes in the middle of a rainy night. When first seen, Susana's being thrown into a solitary cell for misbehaving and the correction officer says Imagine, she's been here two years and is worse than ever!.
In her cell she asks God's help, facing a shadow of the cross formed by the window bars from where a spider crawls away. The window breaks open and she escapes. She ends up at a ranch. Soon the whole household is involved in possessing her and fighting over her. Jesus, the young ranch helper; Alberto, the family's son and heir; and Guadalupe, Alberto's father, 'a God-fearing man and the faithful husband of the beautiful, patient Dona Carmen'.
in Buñuel's 1970 classic, Tristana
. That film is also recalled because of the appearance of Fernando Soler
, who plays the susceptible Don Guadalupe and who looks remarkably like Fernando Rey
, the star of Buñuel's last, great films.
Gilles Deleuze
in his work Cinema 1: The Movement Image
talks about the impulse-image in Susana "that achieves the complete exhaustion of a milieu: mother, servant, son and father. The impulse must be exhaustive. It is not even sufficient to say that the impulse contents itself with what a milieu gives it or leaves to it. This contentment is not resignation, but a great joy in which the impulse rediscovers its power of choice, since it is, at the deepest level, the desire to change milieu, to seek a new milieu to explore, to dislocate, enjoying all the more what this milieu offers, however low, repulsive or disgusting it may be. The joys of the impulse cannot be measured against the affect, that is, against the intrinsic qualities of the possible object."
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
. It is the story of a girl of questionable mental stability who escapes from incarceration and ends up at a plantation where she disrupts a working family's daily routines and chemistry.
Plot
Susana is full of the unique touches of Buñuel's surrealismSurrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
. The heroine, Susana (Rosita Quintana
Rosita Quintana
Rosita Quintana is a Argentinan born Mexican film actress and singer of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema....
), is a beautiful inmate at a women's reformatory who escapes in the middle of a rainy night. When first seen, Susana's being thrown into a solitary cell for misbehaving and the correction officer says Imagine, she's been here two years and is worse than ever!.
In her cell she asks God's help, facing a shadow of the cross formed by the window bars from where a spider crawls away. The window breaks open and she escapes. She ends up at a ranch. Soon the whole household is involved in possessing her and fighting over her. Jesus, the young ranch helper; Alberto, the family's son and heir; and Guadalupe, Alberto's father, 'a God-fearing man and the faithful husband of the beautiful, patient Dona Carmen'.
Analysis
Though the movie means to be steamy, Buñuel is apparently more amused than shocked by Susana's brazen ambition and the no-nonsense way she goes about her conquests. Toward the end, when the traffic in and out of Susana's bedroom is fairly heavy, the movie has the manner of a grandly operatic farce. Miss Quintana is suitably outrageous as Susana, a kind of rough sketch of the character who would later appear in the person of Catherine DeneuveCatherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
in Buñuel's 1970 classic, Tristana
Tristana
Tristana is a 1970 Spanish film directed by Luis Buñuel. Based on the eponymous novel by Benito Pérez Galdós, it stars Catherine Deneuve and Fernando Rey and was shot in Toledo, Spain. The voices of French actress Catherine Deneuve and Italian actor Franco Nero were dubbed to Spanish...
. That film is also recalled because of the appearance of Fernando Soler
Fernando Soler
Fernando Soler was a prolific Mexican film actor and film director.He appeared in over 100 films between 1915 and his death in 1979.- External links :...
, who plays the susceptible Don Guadalupe and who looks remarkably like Fernando Rey
Fernando Rey
Fernando Casado Arambillet , best known as Fernando Rey, was a Spanish film, theatre, and TV actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States...
, the star of Buñuel's last, great films.
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze , was a French philosopher who, from the early 1960s until his death, wrote influentially on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes of Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus , both co-written with Félix...
in his work Cinema 1: The Movement Image
Cinema 1: The Movement Image
Cinema 1: The Movement Image is a book by the philosopher Gilles Deleuze that combines philosophy with film criticism. It was originally published in French as L'Image-mouvement. Cinéma 1 . It was translated into English by Hugh Tomlinson. In the Preface to the French edition Deleuze says that,...
talks about the impulse-image in Susana "that achieves the complete exhaustion of a milieu: mother, servant, son and father. The impulse must be exhaustive. It is not even sufficient to say that the impulse contents itself with what a milieu gives it or leaves to it. This contentment is not resignation, but a great joy in which the impulse rediscovers its power of choice, since it is, at the deepest level, the desire to change milieu, to seek a new milieu to explore, to dislocate, enjoying all the more what this milieu offers, however low, repulsive or disgusting it may be. The joys of the impulse cannot be measured against the affect, that is, against the intrinsic qualities of the possible object."