Nazarín
Luis Buñuel
Mexico at the beginning of the century. A young priest called Nazario lives in a poor boarding house where he performs charity every day. Disowned by the Church for having protected a prostitute accused of murder, Nazario has to flee, condemned to a long period of wandering. He continues his way of the cross, but despite his good will, his attempts to preach divine love end in failure...
With : Francisco Rabal, Marga López, Rita Macedo, Jesús Fernández, Ignacio López Tarso, Luis Aceves Castañeda, Ofelia Guilmáin
Screenplay : Luis Buñuel, Julio Alejandro, d'après le roman éponyme de Benito Pérez Galdós
Image : Gabriel Figueroa
Music : Rodolfo Halffter
Editing : Carlos Savage
Screenplay : Luis Buñuel, Julio Alejandro, d'après le roman éponyme de Benito Pérez Galdós
Image : Gabriel Figueroa
Music : Rodolfo Halffter
Editing : Carlos Savage
Production : Producciones Barbachano Ponce
Distribution: Colifilms
Distribution: Colifilms
One critic writing about Nazarín, said that Buñuel went "to the logical limit of actions, to the logical limits of blasphemy, to the logical limits of sacrilege". With rigorous sobriety and a realism imbued with the out of the ordinary, Buñuel gives a new point of view on faith: believing intensely sometimes implies circumventing dogma and moral principles. This is where Buñuel's strength lies, putting the flesh and the soul, the prostitute and the preacher on the same level. All of his obsessions and convictions are introduced, leaving doubts about the religiousness of the film: "It is not a Catholic film, or an anti-Catholic film", said Buñuel. Nazarín is no doubt one of the characters that Buñuel feels closest to. To portray him, Buñuel called for the first time on an actor who would become one of his favourites, Francisco Rabal.