Thursday, February 9, 2012

THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY (1974)


“…Since we are all apt to believe in the reality of our fantasies, we end up transforming our lies into truths.” – (My Last Sigh: The Autobiography of Luis Bunuel)

A mid age stranger sharing objectionable photos with little girls in a park…a young man wishing to see her aged aunt naked… a group of priests sharing wine, card game with a pretty young dame... cops training class room session frequently interrupted by immediate outings for one or another emergency…a missing school girl’s search in her full presence…a man randomly aiming and killing pedestrians in all possible directions with a sniper gun on top of a skyscraper…a commissioner of police caught for meeting her dead sister at mausoleum… an unforgettable dinner table scene where men sitting on toilet tubs sharing their routine chat about art, city and concerning big issues of world at general and privately eat and drink in a small chamber!!! Ah…I can’t get over this absolutely unexpected absurd mind-blowing affair!

This is an unusual trip for me as well for anybody who’s watching it for the first time to get you hooked into the unpredictable, bizarre and wicked sense of humor created by the most unconventional and stimulating modern artist of last century named Luis Bunuel. The film is Master provocateur’s boisterous laughter pointed on the universal bourgeoisie face. Bunuel used his influence of Goya’s famous painting ‘The Executions of the Third of May’ as prelude of this film. That 18th century artist in his series of drawings ruthlessly exposed the deceit and hypocrisy of society; no wonder why the artistic expressions find it resonance even centuries later in a modern cinematic medium where two radical geniuses shared same echo.

As Bunuel got older his sense of humor grew stronger and more stimulating affair to witness and the man brilliantly played here with fragmentary absurd anecdotes of several characters that frequently punctured the narrative playing the gallery. It consists of stereotype characters belong to different situations and locations that brought them closer, shocks us and departs to led us to introduce several others in the same league. Throughout the film it constantly pokes fun and making statement at hidden hypocrisy of religion, society, human morality and mannerism showing us our mirror reflections of deceptive dark façade driven by illogical human desire and behavior-The Freudian id, ego and super-ego triangle.

So far this is one of the best Bunuel I’ve ever seen. 

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