Tristana

Tristana
original French film poster
Directed by	Luis Buñuel
Produced by	Robert Dorfmann Luis Buñuel
Written by	Julio Alejandro Luis Buñuel Benito Pérez Galdós (novel)
Starring	Catherine Deneuve Fernando Rey Franco Nero Lola Gaos
Cinematography	José F. Aguayo
Edited by	Pedro del Rey
Production company	Epoca
Distributed by	Mercurio Films S.A.
Release date	29 March 1970 (1970-03-29)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	Spain France Italy
Language	Spanish
Box office	$3.3 million

Tristana is a 1970 Spanish film directed by Luis Buñuel. Based on the eponymous novel by Benito Pérez Galdós, it stars Catherine Deneuve and Fernando Rey and was shot in Toledo, Spain. The voices of French actress Catherine Deneuve and Italian actor Franco Nero were dubbed to Spanish. Tristana is a Spanish-Franco-Italian co-production.

The story is set in the late 1920s to early 1930s. Tristana is an orphan adopted by nobleman don Lope Garrido. Don Lope falls in love with her and thus treats her as wife as well as daughter from the age of 19. But, by age 21 Tristana starts finding her voice, to demand to study music, art and other subjects with which she wishes to become independent. She meets the young artist Horacio Díaz, falls in love, and eventually leaves Toledo to live with him. When she falls ill, she returns to don Lope. The illness results in her losing a leg, which changes her prospects; here, the film substantially varies from the novel.

Don Lope inherits money from his sister, Tristana eventually marries him, and, when don Lope is ill, Tristana finishes him off by feigning calling the doctor and opening the window to the winter cold.

In the novel, Tristana resignedly marries don Lope in order for him to receive his inheritance. Also different from the novel is Saturno's increased role -- barely mentioned in the novel, he is Tristana's third love interest in the film.

Buñuel first began working on Tristana in 1962 after Spanish censors rejected his script Secuestro. Buñuel suggested adapting Benito Pérez Galdós's novel instead to his producers at Epoca and was paid $30,000 to write the screenplay. Buñuel and Julio Alejandro wrote the script in December 1962 and updated the novel's setting to the period between the late 1920s to early 1930s. Buñuel and Epoca submitted their script to the Spanish censors in the spring of 1963, hoping to begin shooting in the summer. At the last minute, the Ministry of Culture rejected the script because of its depiction of duelling and Buñuel made Diary of a Chambermaid instead.