That Obscure Object of Desire
October. 08,1977 RAfter dumping a bucket of water on a beautiful young woman from the window of a train car, wealthy Frenchman Mathieu, regales his fellow passengers with the story of the dysfunctional relationship between himself and the young woman in question, a fiery 19-year-old flamenco dancer named Conchita. What follows is a tale of cruelty, depravity and lies -- the very building blocks of love.
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Touches You
Strong and Moving!
Absolutely the worst movie.
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
a story of love and hate in Bunuel manner. nothing new, at first sigh. but it is his last movie. and with this basis, all becomes different. key - the script. and the option for two actresses for lead role. the acting. and the virtue of synthesis because old ingredients - ironic image of middle class, the old man and young woman, the entomologist search of nuances, the sexuality as trap and salvation, the music and the atmosphere, the story of a man to another and shock of reality, the mixture of honey and salt, the fake support for viewer and, sure, Fernando Rey makes all more strange and comfortable. it is the last show and , in same time, a huge party. party of emotions, feelings, desire and faith.
A middle-aged man is obsessed with a young woman who remains elusive. In his final film, Bunuel keeps the narrative more straight-forward than in many of his earlier examples of surrealism. The only notable aspect to the story is that the title character, a woman who is by turns icy and flirtatious, is played by two actresses. No explanation is offered for this odd casting and the switch between hot Molina and cold Bouquet occurs without any rhyme or reason. Naturally, the critics and Bunuel worshippers declare the dual casting gimmick a stroke of genius. There's a clumsy subplot involving terrorists that leads to a predictable conclusion.
Luis Bunuel makes challenging films. This is a romance with a twist, two actresses playing the same woman interchangeably. A rich man, Mathieu, and Conchita, a beautiful flamenco dancer and his object of desire are in a volatile relationship from the start.Using flashbacks to explain why Mathieu dumps a bucket of water over Conchita's head while riding on a train; it is a very funny comedy. When he first meets her, she claims to be eighteen, and a virgin. She teases him endlessly and when he finally lures her into bed, she is wearing a corset so tight that he can't remove it, giving him a major case of blue balls. They break up and reunite several times. He sees her dancing nude at a night club, but still takers her back and buys her a house. She locks him out and lets him observe her having sex with another guy. Although she later claims that the sex was fake, he beats her. This causes her to say that he must really love her. When the train stops they leave together, arm in arm. The ending is a big surprise and unexpected. Excellent work from Banuel.
Few other directors would dare to equate the male libido with international terrorism, but the final feature by master surrealist Luis Buñuel is a dark comic web of sexual obsession (too dark to be truly funny) set against a background of random explosions and political assassinations. The always dapper Fernando Rey stars as a wealthy gentleman who develops an all-consuming infatuation for his young Spanish maid, who by turns tempts him, teases him, refuses him, and finally humiliates him. All Rey wants is to carry his passion to its logical conclusion, but her (deliberately?) unpredictable shifts in mood, from coy temptation to spiteful rejection, leave him in a state of dangerous frustration. Buñuel applies his usual sly wit to the otherwise cynical and pessimistic scenario (one man affectionately refers to women as "sacks of excrement"), going so far as to cast two completely different actresses in the title role and interchanging them at random. The film is at once perverse and disturbing, providing a suitably mordant swan song to a long and distinguished career in movie iconoclasm.