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(1974) “Long live chains!” shout Spanish
prisoners (among them monk Luis Buñuel) about
to be executed by Napoleon’s soldiers (an image
evoking Goya’s “May 3, 1808“); drunk
on sacramental wine, a French captain caresses the
statue of a medieval knight’s wife, then opens
her tomb to find . . . . “What is par-a-pher-nalia?”
queries a 20th century nanny who’s been reading
the preceding story; then a strange man gives the little
girl she’s tending some seemingly obscene postcards,
which drive parents Jean-Claude Brialy and Monica Vitti
to disgust, then lust, but are revealed to be. . .
The non-sequiturs keep on coming in 74-year old Buñuel’s
funniest (and penultimate) film, moving from constantly
interrupted highlight to highlight: the elegant soirée
with guests seated on gleaming toilet bowls, one man
excusing himself to use the dining room; hard-drinking,
poker-playing monks using religious medals as chips;
a leather-clad maîtresse whipping the exposed
buttocks of a bourgeois businessman, while in another
room a high school boy makes love to his middle-aged
aunt; a missing little girl who provides helpful tips
to the cops searching for her; a Montparnasse sniper
who walks out of his courtroom conviction to public
acclaim; and a police crackdown at the zoo bringing
everything full circle: “Long live chains!”
… The exhilarating shock of the unexpected is
heightened by cameos from some of France’s most
famous actors, including Jean Rochefort, Michel Lonsdale
and Michel Piccoli. “All that is most marvelous
and poetic in surrealism at its best.” –
Vincent Canby, New York Times.
"The Phantom of Liberty has remained one of my favorite films... The Milky Way, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and The Phantom of Liberty form a kind of trilogy, or rather a triptych. All three have the same themes, sometimes even the same grammar; and all evoke the search for truth, as well as the necessity of abandoning it as soon as you've found it. All show the implacable nature of social rituals; and all argue for the importance of coincidence, of a personal morality, and of the essential mystery in all things, which must be maintained and respected." --Buñuel, in his memoirs My Last Sigh (Vintage Books, © 1983 Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.) A RIALTO
PICTURES RELEASE. Reviews: Links: |
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| Selections from Amazon.com: | |||
 Diary of a Chambermaid DVD or VHS |
 The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie DVD or VHS |
 That Obscure Object of Desire DVD or VHS |
(No
Image): Objects of Desire: Conversations With Luis Buñuel by Jose De LA Colina, Tomas Perez Turrent (Contributor), Paul Lenti (Editor) |
 Buñuel by John Baxter, Stephen Baxter |
 An Unspeakable Betrayal: Selected Writings of Luis Buñuel by Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carriere |
 My Last Sigh by Luis Buñuel |
 Luis Buñuel The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie by Marsha Kinder (Editor) |
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