Silvia Pinal Remembered

ABOUT THE SERIES:

The American Cinematheque is saddened by the loss of legendary Mexican actress Silvia Pinal and is honored to pay tribute to her lasting influence on world cinema. Pinal placed herself at the forefront of proletariat filmmaking, lending her stardom to a variety of works that shed a luminous light on class conflict around the world.

Perhaps most known for her iconic arthouse collaborations with the illustrious Spanish-Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel, widely considered to be one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Pinal’s performances will forever be etched in film history. VIRIDIANA, the story of a young, soon-to-be nun who visits her uncle, a man who represents much of what she despises about the cruel world, interrogates the simplicity of piety and mocks the hypocrisy of religion, casting religious piety as just another form of class warfare, not too different from the methods of the bourgeoisie. Satire at the expense of religious practices and iconography was a recurring theme for Buñuel and Pinal. They would also collaborate on the short film “Simon of the Desert,” in which Pinal plays the role of the devil itself. In perhaps Buñuel’s most iconic film, THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, Pinal gives one of her most acclaimed performances as Leticia, nicknamed ‘La Valkiria’ (The Valkyrie), in which she contributes to the thesis of Buñuel’s black comedy aimed at unveiling the hidden savagery of aristocracy.

Pinal’s stardom elevated Buñuel’s work during this period, though her career soared independent of her collaborator as well. She starred in THE KING OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD, another black comedy that highlights the plight of the working class in the form of a “modern” re-telling of the classic Robin Hood story, and in GUNS FOR SAN SEBASTIAN, one of the few French Westerns shot in Mexico, starring alongside the great American actor Anthony Quinn.