Purely Joyful Movie!

From my favorite movies..

A Masterpiece!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Much ink has already been spilled on this seemingly enigmatic film by Luis Buñuel. Hereafter, an attempt to analyze some of the obvious and hidden aspects of this masterpiece. The film uses two notions of the word 'phantom': specter (menace) and illusion. The film also plays on many levels: political, religious, social, mental / physical, symbolical, psychoanalytical.Political The slogan 'Down with liberty' is heard at the beginning and at the end of the film. Its message is clear. First, we witness a staging of the famous Goya painting 'The Third of May, 1808' where Spanish prisoners, shouting this slogan, are shot by the French Republican army. 'Down with liberty' means here 'Down with the French Republic' and its sans-culottes, the defenders of the progressive motto 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity'. At the end of the film, the spectator vaguely hears a crowd (apparently a manifestation) which shouts the same slogan. The film was shot during a period when the Communist Party in France still had important political and social clout, especially through its trade union. This party was at that time heavily influenced by a totalitarian state, which was fundamentally opposed to certain freedoms, including political ones. 'Down with liberty' means here also 'Down with the French Republic'.Religion, Justice Religion (Catholicism) was (is) also threatened by liberty and the sans-culottes. The viewer assists at a desecration of a church and of holy bread by the French Republican army. In addition, for L. Buñuel, representatives of the Church are corrupt: in the film, monks play cards and drink alcohol. A sniper kills people indiscriminately in the street, apparently to sow panic among the population; so, it's a provocation (an utmost topical issue). He is condemned, but the sentences of the judges are not respected. To the contrary, the sniper is set free and congratulated by the judicial administration and by part of the population: down with liberty of justice. Physical and mental life A challenging aspect of the movies by L. Buñuel is the dissociation between the physical (time, space) and mental (sentiments) reality. One can see a perfect example of this dissociation in another film by L. Buñuel (An Andalusian Dog), where a father slaps his son, followed by the text 'thirteen years later' and the action continues. In other words, in a split of a second (the slap) the son becomes thirteen years older (psychological time). This dissociation is (perhaps) an explanation of the sequence of the film where a girl disappears while being present. She is physically present, but not mentally for her parents.Illusion Freedom is an illusion in matter of instincts (like for the animals of the zoo). In this regard, scenes of sexual deviances are constants in the films of L. Buñuel as are dream sequences. Other psychoanalytic elements in this movie are anal fixation (a dinner where the guests are sitting on a toilet) or a split personality (the two prefects at the end of the film). Liberty as an illusion is the basic outline of the screenplay: the journey of the characters is all the time disrupted by unforeseen encounters, accidents or bad weather.The end of the film is a shot of an ostrich head, as if L. Buñuel exhorts the spectator: don't put your head in the sand like an ostrich, but do face head-on the (hidden) reality as the bird on the screen.Se non è vero, è molto ben trovato ?

Unless you're already a Bunuel fan, it's pretty much guaranteed that you have never seen a film like this before. A series of vignettes loosely connected by re-appearing characters, The Phantom of Liberty upends your expectations – or confirms your most cynical fears – in a constantly evolving, surprising way. This isn't a serious movie, exactly, but it addresses serious issues: taboos about sex and proper social behavior; individual freedom and the needs of the community; corruption and authority.It is tempting to describe some of my favorite scenes, but The Phantom of Liberty is best seen without expectations. Suffice to say that Bunuel is a master filmmaker, very much at home in the Surrealist genre, and if you choose to pop this film into your DVD player you will have a very interesting evening. Won the Top Foreign Film award from the National Board of Review in 1974; no doubt it was far too peculiar for Oscar consideration.

The Phantom of Liberty is an unusual film one that does not really "fit in" with the rest of the crowd, but that is what makes it brilliant. This Film was certainly mind boggling as I found it interesting on how Luis Buñuel formed a smooth link from one scene to the next. The way the film was laid out was not the only unusual thing about it, but also the way each scene was portrayed everything you would see was out of the ordinary . I sat there thinking to myself , "what is going on here?" it was as if this was filmed in a parallel universe were people lived by different rules we are not accustomed to. From having the dead calling the living, the use of the bathroom was a dining table experience shared with others, and where being sentenced to death would result in in freedom and fame. Sure the scenes certainly sound unbelievable somehow that is where Buñuel worked his magic. As he not only allowed me to flow easily from scene to scene, but also in a way took me away from reality stopped me from asking all these questions , and just allowed me to accept what was going on and go with it . It gave me a view of possible "why not" situations in life that one can imagine . I really enjoyed this film and I'm looking forward to finding others like it in the near future.

The Phantom of Liberty is vastly different from what we consider "normal" our society. It also shows how our society and our moral codes are quite similar but in many ways different. In one scene where an older women and a younger man were together in a hotel room in love, my first thought was "ew that's quite disgusting". I then began to analyze why I thought it was "gross" and then realized that there's a double standard there. Also in that world it's probably perfectly acceptable for an older women to be with a younger man but it's probably quite disgusting for an older man to be with a younger women. As in this world it's the opposite. The movie can be entertaining but lacks a strong story to actually keep me intrigued through out the whole story. The pros outweigh the cons and I still would recommend the viewing of this movie.