Review of Susana

Susana (1951)
7/10
Good film about an unstable young delinquent getting away from a reformatory and finds solace at a wealthy home , being well directed by the Spanish Luis Buñuel
12 August 2020
Susana is a gorgeous , mean delinquent girl (Rosita Quintana) who escapes from a reform school of wayward women and deceptively finds shelter at home of good family . Along the way the sultry , ambitious young attempts to break an agreable family to get her egoistic aims . The apparently friendly young woman is invited to stay in the family home of the wealthy owner, Don Guadalupe (Fernando Soler) , proprietary a luxurious hacienda . He's a good man , well married , and living happily along with his wife (Maria Arcos) and only son (Luis López Somoza) . The-not-so-innocent girl becomes at the beginning an enjoyable guest but she ruthlessly uses everyone in his goals . There is also a foreman (Victor Mendoza) who is equally seduced and a snooper maid . Susana skillfully attempts to break the family harmony . As orderly lives of the members of the attractive family become into a frenzied chaos and unrest . Step by step she causes mayhem and discord among the decent members of the household.

The movie is well worthy thanks to razor-sharp performances as well as certain critical revealing the hypocrisies of modern society , in which a wayward girl uses the power of manipulation and eroticism to get her dark purports and eventually causing distresses until they are virtually struggling with each other . The picture features exceptional work by Rosita Quintana , she's magnificently charming as well as hateful playing the insidious Susana who attempts to dissect the harmonious family group . Her acting result to be a phenomenal precedent to the character who played Sue Lyon in ¨Lolita¨ or Carrol Baker in ¨Baby Doll¨ . The baddie female is really a selfish young , a manipulating babe who hates and seduces , as well as uses her feminine wiles to tempt all around . Furthermore, a beautifully cinematography in subdued black and white by José Ortiz Ramos , being shot , as usual , in Estudios Churubusco Azteca, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. And atmospheric and appropriate musical score by Raúl Lavista.

The motion picture was competently directed by Luis Buñuel , belonging to his Mexican period and it won Ariel Awards, Mexico 1952 and Nominee Silver Ariel Best Young Actor Luis López Somoza . After shooting Spanish and French films as "Un Chien Andalou" (1929) , and ¨Age of Gold¨(1930) , ¨Hurdes tierra sin pan¨ (1936) , Buñuel went on his Mexican period in which he teamed up with producer Óscar Dancigers and after a couple of unmemorable efforts shot back to international attention with the lacerating study of Mexican street urchins in ¨Los Olvidados¨ (1950) , winning him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival . But despite this new-found acclaim, Buñuel spent much of the next decade working on a variety of ultra-low-budget films, few of which made much impact outside Spanish-speaking countries , though many of them are well worth seeking out . As he went on filming "The Great Madcap" , ¨The brute¨, "Wuthering Heights", ¨El¨ , "The Criminal Life of Archibaldo De la Cruz" , ¨Robinson Crusoe¨ , ¨Death in the garden¨ and many others . And finally his second French-Spanish period , usually in collaboration with producer Serge Silberman and writer Jean-Claude Carrière with notorious as well as polemic films , such as : ¨Viridiana¨ , Tristana¨ , ¨The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" and his last picture , "That Obscure Object of Desire" . Susana rating : 7.5/10 . Essential and indispensable seeing for Luis Buñuel aficionados.
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