It would be hard to say that Luis Bunuel's Viridiana is not sensual. A nun-in-training who not only has beatific and angelic countenance but also a fierce beauty is the central character in the movie. You know that this movie cannot be about piety and charity and homilies. You feel the swelling tension in the luxuriant looks of Viridiana. Then there are hurried scenes of her undressing to go to bed, she has her night-gown hitched up somewhat in the scene that she sleepwalks.
Her uncle's mad love for her...you somehow anticipate. There are powerful scenes when he tries to force himself on her. Bunuel is quoted as saying that he had fantasies regarding women who are asleep...
But of course, it is the ending (even when modified) that is strangely like a betrayal, infinitely seductive yet heartbreakingly sad to the audience who by then have also fallen madly in love with Viridiana...
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