The ubversion of literary adaptation in Tristana and that dark object of desire by Luis Buñuel

Abstract

Tristana and That Obscure Object of Desire are the last literary adaptations by Luis Buñuel. Even if the director takes the liberty of making various changes –cuts, synthesis, additions– in the adaptation process, to create Buñuelian works, the literary texts by Benito Pérez Galdós and Pierre Louÿs seem to be still presents in the films as a claimed reference. Firstly, the cinematic lines look like the literary dialogues and sound strange on the screen. In the same way, if we recognize the literary heroines in the cinematic characters as an original reference, the director creates this recognition only to draw us to an universe which becomes disturbing and questions our comprehension and believes, thanks to skilful meaning modifications. These texts resist the adaptation process and remain in the films as quotations, as another texts, in a unmodified way. Therefore Tristana and That Obscure Object of Desire pose the question of the novel’s function in the filmic work’s creation and in its subversion of the cinematic discourse.