Susana. 1951. Directed by Luis Buñuel. Screenplay by Jaime Salvador, Buñuel. With Rosita Quintana, Fernando Soler, Víctor Manuel Mendoza, María Gentil Arcos. In Spanish; English subtitles. 35mm. 86 min.
Long dismissed as a rural melodrama, Susana is one of Buñuel’s most subversive films, a pointed and witty exposure of the sexual and social hypocrisies of Mexico’s middle class. Blonde, voluptuous Susana (Rosita Quintana) is an anarchic force of female sexuality, who escapes from a reformatory and sets up shop on the idyllic hacienda of Don Guadalupe (Fernando Soler, Mexico’s favorite paterfamilias). As the gothic details mount – storms, spiders, snakes, black cats – Susana systematically seduces all of the weak, available males, with only the staunchly traditional women of the ranch to stand against her. The score is by the great Mexican film composer Raul Lavista, the first of six for Buñuel.