The Phantom of Liberty
|
Our Price: $67.30 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $38.23 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Phantom of Liberty
Movie Review: Are we really liberated?
Summary: 5 Stars
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.Movie Review: Phantom of Liberty
Summary: 5 Stars
Bunuel is an acquired taste to be sure, but fascinating once acquired. Throwing away any semblance of traditional narrative, Bunuel works with film as Magritte and Dali did with paint, using surrealism to cast absurd light on institutions which comprise weird reality. By turns funny, disturbing, and thought-provoking.Movie Review: Spectre of Marx
Summary: 4 Stars
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.Movie Review: dadaism on film
Summary: 3 Stars
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
Phantom of Liberty or "Le Fantôme de la liberté" is a film with a non conventional plot where some roles are reversed and others are depicted in an unusual manner.
Monks, smoking and playing poker, people using a toilet in mixed company and eating in private like it is frowned upon when done in public, and many other things.
The DVD only contains a theatrical trailer and an interview with the screenwriter for special features.
More Movie Reviews:
1 2
1 2