If you are familiar with Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights, then consider the ways in which this film is faithful to, and the ways in which it is unfaithful to, its source. What parts of the novel (in terms of character, plot, theme, etc.) does Buñuel retain? What parts does he omit or alter? How faithful is he to the emotional tone of the novel? What is the effect of altering the locale of the story from rural England to rural Mexico?
With whom (if with anyone) do our sympathies lie while watching this film? How does Buñuel portray his characters? Do you agree with Buñuel's own complaint that the actors were inadequate, or unsuited to their roles? And if so, what effect (not necessarily just a negative one) does this unsuitability have upon the film?
The theme of l'amour fou, of a crazed and obsessive romantic passion, was a favorite one of the Surrealists. How does Buñuel treat this theme in his film? With deep committment? With ironic distance? How does the passion of Catalina's love for Alejandro differ from the more conventional romanticism of Isabel's love for him?
What do you make of the comment by Julio Alejandro, one of the screenwriters, that Buñuel demanded that there be no love scenes in the script, because Wuthering Heights "wasn't a novel of love, but of hate"?
In what ways does Buñuel work with, and in what ways does he work against and try to subvert, the conventions of melodrama?
What do you make of Alejandro's hallucination of a still-living Catalina at the end of the film? How does this compare to other hallucination sequences in Buñuel's films (and especially to Francisco's hallucinations at the climax of El)?
Consider the use of music to create emotional effects in the film. How does this work? How does it relate to the customary use of music in melodrama? [NOTE: Buñuel complains that the music was added to the soundtrack when he was out of the country and unable to oversee it. But Baxter, in his biography of Buñuel, says that Buñuel is lying or misremembering. And in any case, the soundtrack music is largely derived from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, which Buñuel freely used in other movies, e.g. in Un chien andalou).]