Before you let misogynist be the first thing that pops into your head, don’t be in such haste as to judge the old-fashioned Catholic value system upheld by Mexicans without attempting to at least appreciate it as just being different, and hopefully maybe even admit that their sexual politics and hierarchies mirror how life really is. Ongoing my further investigation into Buñuel’s films he made while in Mexico, I find even more cogent proof of how compelling it is to get to watch movies with the kinds of characterizations of aspects of the cultural identity of Mexicans that I’d always known from first-hand experience but never so adequately found depicted in cinema.
This time it’s spiteful, vindictive, vengeful personal attacks aimed at someone with loose morals. Sure, throughout history there’ve been tons of examples of religious persecution, but with Mexicans it’s so vivacious, so gleefully mean-spirited it’s fun. Our closest counterpart to what I’m describing is John Waters.
Susana (1951, Luis Buñuel) has as its titular heroine a conniving, wantonly manipulative, 20 yr old sexpot sociopath who's morally rotten; yet soo cute, perky, and fun as to bring a defiant radiance to any scene she’s in. Take that Hayes Code.
She’s actually hot too. I love this actress. That she’s also blond is an especially nice touch. The opening of the movie sets her up as being incarcerated in the state reformatory, for what we can only presume is being slutty. She gets thrown into solitary (one can only imagine what she did to elicit that punishment) and prays to God, and the god of prisons, that she be set free—and instantly she’s able to rip the barred window from her prison cave.
Okay as I write this I realize this could sound like cheesy bad sexploitation but Buñuel eschews any semblance of shabby sleaze by polishing this melodrama with prestige. One of my favorite images from any Buñuel movie is the iconic shot when Susana escapes and the pious family sit for supper as she appears outside their window drenched by a rainstorm. And here it is when the old crone hardcore Catholic head servant FELISA warns that this apparition is a devil.
Yeah sure Susana seduces all the men, causing them to sacrifice everything they are because they're enamored with her. But that’s not anywhere near as interesting as the battle between the women of the household and Susana. It gets so ugly. The rancor with which Susana exclaims that the men will take her over them because she’s young! I don’t see this film as misogynist. And I don’t see Susana as evil. I just think she’s empowered, and resorting to what she has to in order to survive, and fuck it.
And lastly, did anyone else notice the scene with ALBERTO and the dragonfly he’s studying? This might be I wanna say one of the earliest appearances of etymology in a Buñuel film, which will of course be a recurring motif throughout the rest of his work on into France in the 60s and is one of his lasting trademarks. (Listen, I know there was already that Silence of the Lambs moth in Un chien andalou alright.)
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