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Show 3FIM2 By Jean Piatt Playing at the University Little Theatre is Luis Bun-uel's Bun-uel's TRETANA. For those of you who know and love Bunuel, this will be a pleasant pleas-ant Friday and Saturday night. For those of you who do not know the name, you should brace yourself for a totally ambiguous evening. Bunuel has been making films for years in Europe. He apprenticed in the twenties, twen-ties, and has taken the art off onto his own tangent, creating a style copied by few but admired by many. Bun-uel's Bun-uel's films have a surrealistic surreal-istic quality, dripping with decadence and pessimism. He has that ancient, folklore folk-lore feeling that is peculiar to the Spanish. He is, indeed, in-deed, the Lorca of filmmaking. filmmak-ing. He is wrapped in tradition, tradi-tion, affected so entirely by the strong Catholic superstition super-stition that he, himself despises des-pises and dismisses. TRISTANA is the story of two people's peculiar love-hate love-hate relationship and its effects ef-fects on the human spirit. Don Lope is Tristana's guardian. He is a man of declining wealth, once rich, now slowly declining into the musty world of anonymity. He is a' man of honor, of the old culture mingling with the new. He is a duelist, a socialist, soc-ialist, and a gentleman. His fault is his posses-siveness posses-siveness and lust. He seduces se-duces his young ward, who gives herself to him obed-itently, obed-itently, but unlovingly. She remains in his house, his possession, although he never offers marriage. He is an odd mixture of father figure and husband. Tristana grows to despise him more daily. Finally, Tristana finds her escape in a lover, an artist. He is found out by Don Lope who plans to kill the young man in a duel, but, alas, is denied the pleasure when Tristana runs off with her lover. However, things sour with her lover. Tristana becomes be-comes ill and cannot be prop erly cared for by the artist. art-ist. She asks to returnhome. The illness transforms the young, beautiful girl into a cold, unloving woman. She has been physically crippled in that a leg had to be amputated. am-putated. But she is, also, crippled emotionally by her hatred and desire for revenge re-venge on her guardian, Don Lope. Don Lope now has his Tristana for his own. She consents to marry him, and they are wed. But she will not share her bed with him, and denies him any sexual gratification. Her days are passed playing a piano provided pro-vided for her by the doting Don Lope. But Don Lope is not terribly dismayed. She is his at last, his possession by the edicts of the church and society. He has triumphed over all others. The aging man feels smug in his possession of the coldly cold-ly beautiful Tristana. Possession and lust are the failings of Don Lope. Tristana's failing is her hatred hat-red for her guardian. Her desire for revenge is so strong that when Don Lope suffers a heart attack, she pretends to call the doctor, but, instead, lets him die. She has triumphed over Don Lope in her own way. But, in reality who has caused the more harm? Bunuel has spun a eerie tale of lust, revenge, and decadence. Don Hope succeeds suc-ceeds in his desire to possess pos-sess Tristana physically, but he has paid the price of crippling her physically and emotionally. All he has won is her hatred. And this hatred hat-red has transformed a beautiful, beau-tiful, sensitive creature into a vengeful, cold woman. Tristana lives in a world apart from all others. She has become incapable of love, incapable of compassion. compas-sion. Thus both achieve empty victory. Both have merely aided inthe progression progres-sion of man toward the decadent de-cadent state. Both have further debased man. Bunuel does not make the decision as to who is to blame. Don Lope hassufferedforhissin, as has Tristana. Tristana, is perhaps, the most hopeless hope-less because she does not even realize that she is as selfish and destructive. Bunuel backs up his flawless flaw-less actors with a directorial sensitivity rich in illusion and ambiguity. He makes even the real seem hazy and shadowy, as if it were more in the realm of the misty underworld than reality. His images are rich in detail, yet transmit the cold, unfeeling unfeel-ing atmosphere of the lives of his characters. Tristana becomes the slow unfolding of a nightmare that is not as horrible as horrifying in its statements and emotion. Surely the work of a master. |