Another Luis Buñuel flick in tragedy mode, although this one's a real gut punch. Buñuel's filmography, especially his later films produced in France, have no shortage of horny old men with highly questionable morals chasing after their female muse with an insistence that might once have been viewed as a romantic ideal, but is now rightfully understood as harrassment, pure and simple. A certain quality of his films has always been the decision not to force a judgement on the viewer, instead having him make up his own mind about it. I always wondered how much different audiences at the time might have related to the events depicted as apposed to now. Also, you're usually left wondering what the director himself thought about these displays of misguided masculinity.

Not so in this mexican drama. The depiction of its male protagonist leaves little open to interpretation here. The dude basically forces, rather than charmes, the girl into marrying him, then grows increasingly and thoroughly controlling about every little aspect of her life. I can't remember ever having seen such a powerful indictment of toxic masculinity from Buñuel. The story almost plays out like the perfect storm of possible abusive behaviors human beings can impose upon one another. He gaslights the hell out of her, primes her relatives in advance with "his side of the story" whenever he suspects she's gonna open up to them. He uses his wealth and prestige to force everybody into submission. In one of the first scenes, he finds one of his servants sexually abusing a maid. Instead of giving the servant hell for it, he fires the poor girl. He knows the dirt he has on his servant will make him cover up for his own crimes in the future. Also, he entertains close connections to the church, with local priests acting as his accomplices in gaslighting his victim, accusing her of lying as she seeks their counsel. He's such a good, well-respected guy, they say, so this confused young lady must either be overreacting or have misunderstood something.

Only towards the end some of the trademark Buñuel ambivalence creeps in, when the deep insecurities at the root of the protagonist's actions finally escalate into a full blown nervous breakdown and he spends the rest of his life in a monastery. So ultimately, the director presents us with another rorschach test. You can either view his fate as a just punishment... or as just another means for him to escape justice, orchestrated by his allies in the church, which is quite well-known for covering up even the most disgusting cases of abuse, doing everything in its power to save the perpetrators from having to face actual consequences. Over sixty years later, this film might still hit painfully close to home for many viewers, i can imagine.