Viridiana 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Viridiana 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 16, 2026

Luis Bunuel's "Viridiana" (1961) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include archival program with actress Silvia Pinal, archival program with critic Richard Porton, original trailers, and more. In Spanish, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

In the post-war era, the two most effective European satirists were Spaniard Luis Bunuel and Italian Marco Ferreri. However, it is not because the films they directed turned out drastically different and vastly superior to those of their competitors. For example, Bunuel’s notorious button-pushers share many of the same themes that are channeled through Giorgio Bianchi’s The Moralist (1959), Antonio Pietrangeli’s Adua and Her Friends (1960), and Luis García Berlanga's The Executioner (1963). Ferreri’s shockers The Ape Woman (1964) and The Big Feast (1973) are convincingly outclassed by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Accattone (1961), Dusan Makavejev’s Sweet Movie (1974) and Ettore Scola’s Ugly, Dirty and Bad (1976), too. Bunuel and Ferreri became the most effective satirists because of the timing and consistency of the punches that their films delivered, as well as a willingness to fuse their rebellious anarchism into political activism. Indeed, Bunuel and Ferreri were both unapologetic sympathizers of the post-war Communist doctrine, rarely missing a good opportunity to target its biggest nemesis, the Church, which is why their films received tremendous support.

However, this seemingly mutually beneficial relationship produced a classic paradox. The further Bunuel and Ferreri’s films went and the harder they struck their targets, the more difficult it became for the two to rationalize their satirical anarchism, arguably their greatest strength, with the Communist doctrine. Bunuel and Ferreri both despised strict control and unchecked loyalty to the Kremlin, which is where all Communist leaders on both sides of the Iron Curtain looked for guidance. So, while ideologically aligned with the Communist doctrine, the satirical anarchism of Bunuel and Ferreri’s films became contradictory and shortly after impossible to contain.

Bunuel’s Viridiana perfectly demonstrates this classic paradox. Its narrative is broken into two uneven parts, each targeting a predictable mark, but only one causing predictable damage. In the first, the lonely widower Don Jaime (Fernando Rey) welcomes his niece, Viridiana (Silvia Pinal), who is getting ready to become a nun. Struck by her uncanny resemblance to his beloved late wife, Don Jaime allows his mind to be overwhelmed by a perverse fantasy and dies a horrible death. In the second, the permanently scarred Viridiana inherits half of Don Jaime’s massive mansion and chooses a different life. Instead of becoming a nun, she vows to help the least fortunate around her. The arrival of Don Jaime’s long-lost son, Jorge (Francisco Rabal), who is now the owner of the other half of the massive mansion, does not dissuade Viridiana, and shortly after, she welcomes a motley crew of broke outcasts to their new home. However, on a day like any other, while Viridiana and Jorge are away from the massive mansion, the broke outcasts organize a mad feast that promptly transforms them into unhinged animals.

Don Jaime is just a symbol, so his quick evolution into a sick hypocrite and punishment are straight out of Bunuel’s book of tricks. The rest produces the material for the classic paradox mentioned earlier. The broke outcasts are also a symbol -- they represent everything Don Jaime is not -- but Bunuel picks them apart with even greater intensity. They are more perverse and unbearably repulsive, an awful, unquestionably inferior replacement for everything that Don Jaime represents.

Bunuel’s most popular films feature witty satire, but they are praised primarily for ideological reasons. Ironically, the deeper one digs into them, the easier it becomes to realize that their witty satire exposes human weaknesses and addictions, not the fundamentally flawed socio-cultural views, hypocritical habits, and compromised identities of their supposedly privileged marks.

Viridiana 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Criterion's release of Viridiana is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray is Region-A "locked".

Please note that some of the screencaptures included with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

Screencaptures #1-20 are taken from the Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #23-30 are taken from the 4K Blu-ray.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this release:

"Undertaken by Mercury Films, this new 4K restoration was created from the 35mm original camera negative. The monaural soundtrack was remastered from a 35mm optical soundtrack.

Image restoration: Cherry Towers, Madrid, with additional restoration by Prasad Corporation, Burbank, CA.
Audio restoration: The Criterion Collection."

In native 4K, the 4K restoration is not presented with Dolby Vision or HDR grades. I viewed the 4K restoration in its entirety in native 4K and later spent time with its 1080p presentation on the Blu-ray.

The only older release of Viridiana that I have in my library is this DVD release, produced by Criterion in 2006. I did only a couple of quick comparisons with it.

It is very easy to be pleased with the new 4K restoration because it brings many meaningful improvements in terms of stability, delineation, clarity, and depth. Now, Viridiana has an all-around better and more attractive appearance, and you do not have to have a very large screen to instantly begin appreciating the strength of the new 4K restoration. However, there are still a few areas where more could have been done. For example, during the opening credits and early into the film, some very light stability issues remain. It is clear that they are inherited, but some more careful enhancements could have been introduced. Also, in many darker areas, blacks become too thick and in some places create light crushing. I did not find this development distracting and still think that the overall quality of the visuals there is substantially better now. However, the entire grayscale could have been managed more convincingly. While comparing the native 4K and 1080p presentations, I found some of the bright outdoor footage to be more pleasing in native 4K. However, the native 4K presentation also reveals many more inherited inconsistencies in different sequences. There are no traces of problematic degraining corrections. The surface of the visuals is easy to describe as healthy as well. My score is 4.25/5.00.

Viridiana 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this release: Spanish LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The majority of Luis Bunuel's films, including the biggest one, tend to have shaky audio tracks. Viridiana has one such audio track. However, I think that the overall quality of the lossless track included on this release is very nice. On the DVD release of Viridiana that I have, the audio could be noticeably thin, borderline brittle at times. Here, the unevenness is still noticeable, but the audio is fuller and more even. The English translation is excellent. The size of the English subtitles is excellent as well.

Viridiana 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Bonus Features - there are no bonus features on the disc.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Silvia Pinal - in this archival interview, Silvia Pinal reflects on her acting career and work with Luis Bunuel. The interview was conducted for Criterion in 2006. In Spanish, with English subtitles. (15 min).

• Cineastes de Notre Temps - presented here are edited excerpts from a French television episode on Luis Bunuel, which was originally broadcast on April 4, 1964. In French, with English subtitles. (38 min).

• Richard Porton - in this archival program, critic Richard Porton discusses Viridiana, its themes, and Luis Bunuel's career. The program was produced for Criterion in 2005. In English, not subtitled. (13 min).

• Trailer One - presented here is an original U.S. release trailer for Viridiana. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Trailer Two - presented here is a recent trailer for the 4K restoration of Viridiana. In Spanish, with English subtitles. (2 min).

• Booklet - an illustrated booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Michael Wood and an interview with Lusi Buñuel, as well as technical credit.

Viridiana 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For its time, the politics of Viridiana were as subtle as a brick through a window. Interestingly, Viridiana and several of the other scandalous satirical films Bunuel directed effectively discredit their politics, because they reveal that ultimately all human beings are compromised by the same weaknesses and addictions, rather than their beliefs and societal status. In my opinion, this is why some of these films, despite looking dated, remain relevant today. Criterion's combo pack presents a good new 4K restoration of Viridiana on 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.