''Susana'' (''Susana, demonio y carne'' or ''The Devil and the Flesh'') is a 1951 film directed by

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and m ...

. It is the story of a girl of questionable mental stability who escapes from incarceration and ends up at a plantation where she disrupts a working family's daily routines and chemistry.

Plot

Susana is full of the unique touches of Buñuel's

surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

. The heroine, Susana (

Rosita Quintana Rosita Quintana (16 July 1925 – 23 August 2021) was an Argentine-Mexican actress, singer and songwriter. She was one of the top leading ladies of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. She starred in Luis Buñuel's '' Susana'' (1951) and musical fil ...

), is a beautiful inmate of a reformatory. When first seen, Susana is thrown into a solitary cell with bats and rats for misbehaving and the correction officer says ''Imagine, she's been here two years and is worse than ever!''. In her cell, she asks for God's help, facing a shadow of the cross formed by the window bars from where a spider crawls away. She manages to pull the bars across the window away from the rotting walls and escapes into the rainy night. She ends up at a ranch who gives her shelter after she gives an invented history. She soon entices the men, who become obsessed with possessing her and end up fighting over her: Jesús, the ranch foreman; Alberto, the family's teenage son; and Guadalupe, Alberto's father, "a God-fearing man and the faithful husband of the beautiful, patient Dona Carmen".

Analysis

Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...

in his work '' Cinema 1: The Movement Image'' talks about the impulse-image in Susana "that achieves the complete exhaustion of a milieu: mother, servant, son and father. The impulse must be exhaustive. It is not even sufficient to say that the impulse contents itself with what a milieu gives it or leaves to it. This contentment is not resignation, but a great joy in which the impulse rediscovers its power of choice, since it is, at the deepest level, the desire to change milieu, to seek a new milieu to explore, to dislocate, enjoying all the more what this milieu offers, however low, repulsive or disgusting it may be. The joys of the impulse cannot be measured against the affect, that is, against the intrinsic qualities of the possible object."

Cast

Fernando Soler Fernando Soler (born Fernando Díaz Pavia; 24 May 1896 – 25 October 1979) was a Mexican actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. He was considered one of the most important figures of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. In his career spanning ...

Don Guadalupe *

Susana *

Víctor Manuel Mendoza Víctor Manuel Mendoza (1913–1995) was a Mexican film actor.Agrasánchez, Jr. p.159 Selected filmography * ''Almas rebeldes'' (1937) * ''Ojos tapatios'' (1938) - Carlos * ''Los bandidos de Río Frío'' (1938) - Juan Robreño * '' While Mexico ...

Jesús *

María Gentil Arcos María Gentil Arcos (11 April 1905 – 18 July 1965) was a Spanish-Mexican actress of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema as a character actress in supporting roles. She was the sister of Conchita Gentil Arcos, also an actress in the Golden Age ...

Felisa * Luis López Somoza Alberto *

Matilde Palou Matilde Palou was a Mexican film actress.Hershfield p.116 She appeared in thirty films during her career. Selected filmography * ''Juarez and Maximillian'' (1934) * ''Narciso's Hard Luck'' (1940) * ''The Eternal Secret ''The Eternal Secret'' ( ...

Doña Carmen *

Rafael Icardo Rafael may refer to: * Rafael (given name) or Raphael, a name of Hebrew origin * Rafael, California * Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israeli manufacturer of weapons and military technology * Hurricane Rafael, a 2012 hurricane Fiction * ''R ...

Don Severiano, veterinary *

Enrique del Castillo Enrique () is the Spanish variant of the given name Heinrich of Germanic origin. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Enric (Catalan), Enrico (Italian), Henrik (Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian), Heinrich (German), Hendrik, Henk (Dut ...

Reformatory official

References

External links

* 1951 films 1951 drama films Mexican drama films 1950s Spanish-language films Mexican black-and-white films Films directed by Luis Buñuel 1950s Mexican films {{1950s-Mexico-film-stub