Tristana
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Tristana (1970) is a 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. It was nominated for the American Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and screened at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition. The voices of French actress Catherine Deneuve and Italian actor Franco Nero were dubbed to Spanish. Tristana is a Spanish-Franco-Italian co-production.
Plot and differences with novel
Tristana is an orphan adopted by nobleman don Lope Garrido. Don Lope falls in love with her and thus treats her as daughter and wife from the age of 19. But, by age 21 Tristana starts finding her voice, to demand to study music, art and other subjects with which she wishes to become independent. She meets the young artist Horacio Díaz, falls in love, and eventually leaves Toledo to live with him. When she falls ill, she returns to don Lope. The illness results in her losing a leg, which changes her prospects; here, the film substantially varies from the novel.
Don Lope inherits money from his sister, Tristana eventually marries him, and, when don Lope is ill, Tristana finishes him off by feigning calling the doctor and opening the window to the winter cold. By then she has become jaded like don Lope. In the novel she resignedly marries him in order for don Lope to receive his inheritance. Also different from the novel is Saturno's increased role (barely mentioned in the novel), but in the film is Tristana's third love interest.
Cast
- Catherine Deneuve : Tristana
- Fernando Rey : Don Lope
- Franco Nero : Horacio
- Lola Gaos : Saturna
- Antonio Casas : Don Cosme
- Jesús Fernández : Saturno
- Denise Menace : Armanda
- Vicente Solar : Don Ambrosio
- José Calvo : Bellringer
- Fernando Cebrián : Dr. Miquis