The Phantom of Liberty
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adriana Asti, Ellen Bahl, Jenny Astruc, Julien Bertheau, Pascale AudretBrand: Image Entertainment
Primary Contributor: Jean-Claude Brialy
Primary Contributor: Adolfo Celi
Primary Contributor: Michel Piccoli
Primary Contributor: Vitti, Monica
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-05-24
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: The Criterion Collection
Movie Reviews of The Phantom of Liberty
Movie Review: Bunuel's Finest Achievement
Summary: 5 Stars
Luis Bunuel was a director whose work spanned decades, countries and styles, yet, throughout, maintained a keen eye for satire and a talent for presenting surreal imagery.
This film is possibly the best example of these aspects, and is arguably his best. The dinner table scene related by the teacher is one of the most hilarious scenes I've ever watched, and like most of the comedic scenes in the film, never falls flat. Although the movie is essentially a collection of skits, they are tied in effortlessly, and do have common themes running throughout (the hypocrisy of authoritarian organizations, particularly clerical).
I think this is a really good example of Bunuel's work, for those who have heard or read about him and want to find out more. Sure, many will recommend Un Chien Andalou, which is an undisputed masterpiecek, but The Phantom of Liberty is a very different film made at a different time, and epitomises Bunuel's later work (after his return to Europe). Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in world cinema, or generally, those looking for humour with a purpose.
Summary of The Phantom of Liberty
Bourgeois convention is demolished in Luis Bu?uel's surrealist gem The Phantom of Liberty. Featuring an elegant soir#e with guests seated at toilet bowls, poker-playing monks using religious medals as chips, and police officers looking for a missing girl who is right under their noses, this perverse, playfully absurd comedy of nonsequiturs deftly compiles many of the themes that preoccupied Bu?uel throughout his career-from the hypocrisy of conventional morality to the arbitrariness of social arrangements.Any serious lover of film eventually (if not immediately) succumbs to the genius of Luis Bunuel. The bottomless wit and unsentimental clear-sightedness of the Spanish master is evident throughout his career, but Bunuel has the added bonus of never tapering off, never losing his edge. The Phantom of Liberty was produced when Bunuel was in his mid-70s, and it's as hilariously impertinent as anything he ever made. Along with his (and anybody's) key collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere, Bunuel strings together a series of reverse-logic dreams and surrealist blackouts, which flow from one to another without building into anything like a conventional storyline.
A nurse at an inn is sidetracked by a foursome of poker-playing priests, while an S&M couple down the hall invite everyone to their room for a drink and a show; a sit-down party has guests seated on toilets around a table; a police commissioner receives a phone call from his dead sister. None of it makes sense, except that it makes absolute sense. By the time a little girl is reported missing by her frantic parents, despite the fact that she is manifestly with them in schoolroom and police station, the film has entered the zone where comedy and unnerving observations come together in a perfect way. Many top European actors participate in this exercise, including Michel Piccoli, Monica Vitti, Jean Rochefort, and Jean-Claude Brialy. Perhaps the format limits the film from gaining the resonance of latter Bunuel films such as The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie or That Obscure Object of Desire, but it's a marvelous surrealist variety show. --Robert Horton
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