Tristana, acknowledged as Buñuel's ‘most Spanish’ work, was inspired by a novel of the same name by one of Spain’s greatest nineteenth-century writers, Benito Pérez Galdós. In 1930s Toledo, newly orphaned beauty Tristana (Catherine Deneuve) is left in the care of ageing atheist and fallen aristocrat Don Lope (Fernando Rey). The dutiful and innocent girl is seduced by Lope and she duly becomes his mistress. However, when she meets a young painter, the handsome but uninspiring Horacio (Franco Nero), power changes hands and Tristana becomes increasingly embittered when fate plays a nasty trick on her. A classic, perfectly cast and beautifully photographed film, Tristana is a twisted, haunting study of sexual politics and the concept of freedom.
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