Customer Reviews

Phantom of Liberty [VHS]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Another great work by Luis Bunuel, The Phantom of Liberty has more outright humor in it than probably any of his other films. When the private and public functions of eating and evacuating are reversed, and monks congregate in a room to watch a man get spanked by a dominatrix, and a soldier passionately kisses a statue, and a haughty professor's butt gets tagged with a full-of-pins paper cutout by some immature cadets, you know you're having fun.

Here it really seems as though Bunuel was essentially making fun of his own intense desire to engage in biting satire, because the feeling is much more of letting loose with some laugh-out-loud antics rather than the need to mercilessly slash and burn social conventions. This is a much lighter film than one would typically expect from Bunuel, and yet that is not at all related to its significance. It's a sharp piece of cinema, full of irreverence that, as many have already indicated, is closer to Monty Python than anything else.

Bunuel's sense of fun here does not require a plot, just as many of his other films don't. But in this film the lack of formal narrative actually seems to work better than in several of his other works; we keep waiting for the next scene to see if it will top what we've just seen--regardless whether there's logic in the seguing or not (there almost always isn't).

A lot of fun and very highly recommended.

I'm told by fellow film enthusiasts that Buñuel's later films do not show this Spanish master at his best, that his earliest films---his famous collaborations with Salvador Dalí, for instance---show an edgier, more fascinating Buñuel. Whatever. I saw his 1974 film THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY for the first time recently, and I immediately fell in love with it. There are those who swear by his more popular 1972 Oscar-winner THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE, but somehow I think THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY is even more entertaining than DISCREET CHARM.

There is no plot to speak of in PHANTOM: this film is basically a collection of surrealist sketches that finds Buñuel playing with all kinds of different ideas and different images. Monks pray for a woman's sick father, and then play poker with the woman and smoke. A group of people sit around a dinner table on toilets, and go to the bathroom to eat in private. Two parents desperately try to find their missing daughter---even though she's right there in class when they call her name. In the universe Buñuel concocts in THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY, anything goes.

The amazing thing about this movie is that, instead of seeming like an irrational series of surrealistic sketches, THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY has a broad theme to support its free-form structure: it's Buñuel's comic vision of freedom run amuck. Sure, the idea of liberty is appealing to everyone...but, as Buñuel seems to be suggesting, even freedom has its limits. The opening scene of the movie is set in Toledo, Spain in 1808, as Napoleon's troops attempt to liberate the Spanish and are greeted with cries of "Down with liberty!" There can be times when we want the assurance of authority, rather than the freedom to act in whatever way we please.

Buñuel doesn't take a stand one way or the other, really; he's just an artist who is intrigued by the idea, and his interest fuels the free-form structure of the film, and its content. Almost anything and everything he can think of---within the bounds, I suppose, of the same themes he covered throughout his long and illustrious film career---is thrown into this movie, and while some viewers may perhaps prefer the comfort of a movie with some structure, I found its elegant chaos exhilarating.

Only a master filmmaker who had absolute confidence in what he was doing would dare make a movie like this. I think Buñuel pulls it off triumphantly here; somehow, he makes the movie seem almost logical, the way it progresses. THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY is a sheer delight. Highly recommended.

This excellent collection of satirical vignettes is my kind of movie - crazy, dark and comical, it goes any direction it wants and does not follow any rules. When we try to grasp for the meaning, it is like a ghost, a phantom that "leaves us with a wisp of vapor in our hands" and disappears - very much like the liberty, the freedom the humans try to find but instead could only see its phantom disappearing. The film follows many characters on its way shifting effortlessly and playfully from the central ones to the minor ones making minor ones the central and going back and forth from one time period to another. It opens in Toledo during the Napoleonic occupation then jumps to the modern day Paris. It could've gone anywhere and introduced me to any character - it still would've been enormously interesting because it was made by the master who had never lost his curiosity, his inquisitive mind, his memory that consisted of the strange and amazing images, his sense of humor, his childhood dreams, his fantasies, dark and shining and who was able to throw them all on the screen like no one ever was able or will be able to do. To understand Bunuel completely would be as impossible as to catch the Phantom of Liberty - he will be always one of the best and unsolved mysteries in the Art of Cinema.

Harpo, Chico and Groucho, that is, more than Karl. Amusing and entertaining through and through, but not the pinnacle of Bunuel, which, in my eyes, is Tristana. But I've only seen 6 or 7 of his films. The extra feature, The Celebration of Chance, is invaluable. Bunuel's works are greatly helped by the commentaries of Jean-Claude Carriere. Carriere remarks that the title is an allusion to Marx. The truth is that the pursuit of liberty (or the idea that it can ever be attained) is, and has to be, illusory; and the movie medium actually accentuates the doomed nature of the search. No matter how much you twist and turn, invert the world, run counter to convention and reverse reality, the prison which fetters human perceptions can never be escaped. This is not exactly new. In fact there is a passage in one of Lewis Carroll's lesser known works, where the crowd shouts something like: Longer hours! Worse pay! Illogic has always had its adherents, and the non-sequitur has been known for centuries. Bunuel enjoyed the freedom in this film to do exactly what he wanted, and in one sense it is an expression of the fact that even with this freedom, to ignore plot, character development, cause and effect, the movie-maker is still constrained --- by something. The wish to produce a work of art, perhaps? Taken to its absurd extreme, the artist would end up in total solitude creating a work which he instantly destroys. The film has to be seen, however, and the one star has only been removed by a personal desire to be perverse. Wonderful cinematography, perfect performances, superb scenes and dialogue.

The Phantom of Liberty is made up of a series of surrealist vignettes held together by the loosest of narrative structures - Think of a Monty Python episode without the laughter-track. The opening scene has prisoners facing a firing squad, defiantly clenching their raised fists, and shouting, "Down with freedom" and "Long live chains." This pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the film. In another memorable scene, guests sit down at the dining table, but instead of chairs, they sit on toilets. To talk about food at the table is the height of vulgarity. There are other scenes just as good. This film may sound arty-farty, but it works and works brilliantly, and in no small part due to Luis Bunuel, who directs with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of effect. Don't let the surrealist tag put you off. This film is fun and was meant to be so. This may not be quite up there with the rest of Bunuel's classics : Belle De Jour, Simon of the Desert, or The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, with which The Phantom of Liberty has something in common; but it is still a minor masterpiece and will delight and baffle in equal measure.

Bunuel turns things upside down in this social critique which, surely, ranks as one of his most effective films. While this film drifts through the surreal world we would expect of Bunuel - the commentary it makes is indeed serious and quite thought provoking. If we, as viewers, are shocked or find humor in the scenes of this film we should stop and ask ourselves - Are we as liberated as we think we are? If you find using the toilet in front of your friends and going off to eat in private absurd - you are not the open minded person you think you are.

Made two years after 'The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie', this film is both similar to and different from its predecessor: it is episodic and bourgeoisie is one of its main targets, but it contains more shots and scenes (it feels more dynamic), its tone is somewhat cruder and it is mostly geared towards individual quests, whereas 'Charm' usually dealt with almost all of the main characters at the same time; the 'Charm' elements 'Phantom' tends to recall are the stories that were told by supporting characters, and the bishop character himself (the man who played him, Julien Bertheau, has another very good role here). As strange as it may seem, the narrative is fairly linear throughout since the apparent breaks always flow from what has just gone on, although Bunuel characteristically chooses the most unpredictable transitions; it reminds me of a painting by the surrealist Yves Tanguy, 'Le Ruban des Exces', in which abstract forms mingle audaciously from the left side of the picture to the right without any interruption. Authority figures - policemen, judges, doctors, teachers, clergymen, parents - are first established in their customary roles only to lose their power and dignity soon after, often in surprising ways. The film's vignettes have been deemed 'existential' - I'd argue that the absurdity Bunuel considers here is not a source of anguish, but of art, absurdity being a means for the artist; it also hides a meticulous structure. This work's reputation is not quite as high as that of 'The Discreet Charm...', but it might be even better.

This film is my favorite of Bunuel's work. It's similar to a full length Monty Python episode, except it's in French, and the women are much better looking. It's very funny, surreal (of course), and strange, yet it makes a great deal of sense. The scene where people defecate in public and eat in private is hilarious, the scene where the priest gives children normal cards to play with, but the adults think they're pornographic is great too. The monks playing poker is quite a vivid image as well. Does this all make sense? Of course it does. All of Bunuel's films make sense in their own way. The final shot of an ostrich is a great way to end this film. I remember showing Bunuel's final film, That Obscure Object of Desire, to my sister, and as open minded as she is, she hated the film and the ending. She probably would have hated the ostrich ending in this one. For those who think Richard Linklater's Slacker was great should watch this film. The story structure (such as it is) of Slacker is exactly like the one here. Slacker is a good film, but The Phantom of Liberty is far superior. I love later Bunuel. This film, Discreet Charm, and Viridiana are my favorite Bunuel films...

Coming after THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE and before THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE, Luis Bunuel's PHANTOM OF LIBERTY marks something of a return to his old Mexican aesthetic of unrelenting shock humour without sacrificing the class and panache of his heralded late French period. There is no plot, only a series of vignettes connected by the exit of one character and the entrance of the next. This gives Bunuel ample oppurtunity to send up the middle, low, and (especially) upper classes in a variety of ingenious ways. And of course, the Catholic church remains a favorite target. I won't reveal any of what happens, but there is at least one scene which you will NEVER FORGET (having to do with toilets). This is one of Bunuel's most aggressively surreal films, and it's a must for anyone interested in the works of this great filmmaker, in the history of foreign/art movies, or who feel that nothing interesting ever came out of European cinema. One of my personal favorites from Bunuel's "ouevre", and one which the director felt was among the closest to his heart. The cast, made up mostly of old Bunuel stalwarts, is great, as is the script, and the circular structure of the "narrative" predates many similarly arranged storylines. Gross-out humour meets surrealist satire. Before John Waters, before Pedro Almodovar, before David Lynch, there was Luis Bunuel.

An absurd piece of surrealism/comedy from Luis Brunuel, released in 1974. It has a lot of well-shot and nicely-acted scenes of absurdity that don't say anything about anything. It is an ensemble performance with no plot, just episodes that connect to each other and wander out of each other. Starting off with Napoleon's troops in France, and a statue coming to life to smack a cheeky legionnaire. A park pervert gives pictures to young girls, but it's not what you think it is (very funny). A man muses "I hate symmetry", while looking at a framed spider. He has a conversation about spiders with his daughter, time breaks down, some chickens wander by mistake, and a postman delivers a letter in his bedroom. The doctor tells him it is a dream, but then he can't explain the letter. The doctor's nurse asks him if she can have time off to visit her sick father, then she drives off, encounters a tank with three soldiers that are hunting foxes, then she checks into a crazy hotel that has poker-playing priests, a flamenco dancer, and a businessman who is traveling with his dominatrix (the woman on the cover). There is also a woman having a romantic getaway with her nephew (!?!?!) and there is passion and violence in their encounter, which is troubled but ends happily. One of the men in the hotel gets a lift from the hotel to the next town, where he teaches gerndarmes who are more like school children. People come and go, there is no discipline, and he's left with the worst two students in the class. The next scene in the movie is one of the best - it's the dinner where everyone sits at toilets around a table, then excuse themselves to go and get a bite to eat on their own in another room. The conversation is funny: in 20 years, there will be seven billion people in the world, each of them releasing 12 pounds of excrement and urine per day - that's 72 billion tons of the stuff every day! Then there is the case of the girl who disappeared from school, but she's there the whole time. They file a missing person's report, checking her out to see what she's wearing. Then months later she's found again. Another very good sequence is about a man who thinks that people who are cruel to animals should be executed; he turns out to be a sniper who kills a dozen people before he's apprehended; he's given the death sentence, but then wanders off and is treated like a celebrity. Finally, there's the man who meets a woman who looks just like his sister, he reminisces about the times that she used to play piano for him in the buff. The end of the film is a collection of zoo animals.

The movie is extremely well made, very funny, and consistently fascinating. The director plays trick after trick on the audience in a very classy manner, and nothing is as is expected. Beautiful.