2005-02-09 03:51:54尚未設定
The Phantom of Liberty
(reviewed on 7/2/05)
The Phantom of Liberty (Le Fantome de la liberte)
year: 1974
country: Italy, France
directed by: Luis Bunuel
Two little girls are playing in a park. While their guardians aren't paying much attention to them, a creepy man approaches the two girls and offers to give them a "lovely present". The girls follow the man to a quiet corner and the man gives them a pack of photos, and warns them not to show them to any adults. Upon returning home, one of the girls gives the photos to her mother, and the mother soon gaspes at the ghastly sight of them. "Ugh... It's obscene!" She exclaims. The photos are then disclosed to be tourist postcards of landmark buildings of different countries.
The film title, 'The Phantom of Liberty', has made reference to the 'The Communist Manifesto' to condemn the bourgeois mentality that fears liberty. In this second last film of the long career of the definitive surrealist master, Luis Bunuel, satires on civilization take on all walks of life, ranging from family, love relations, teaching and medical professions, military, police authority, to even the dead people. It's almost natural that the film opens with the historical episode on the Napoleon army at war and ends with a montage of wild-life animals. After spending decades in exposing the absurdity of modern life, it's interesting to look at the conclusion Bunuel made in his last film that deals with the issue: that humans are growing increasingly corrupt with the advance of technology and they end up in the same league as animals.
Instead of adopting a traditional narrative form, this movie opts to operate its plot in a free-flow manner. Each episode tells the strange tale of one or a group of characters, and as they come across different people subsequently, the narrative moves on to the next character(s). As the film is seriosly fragmented, it's difficult to rate the whole thing as an entirety, especially since the different episodes often have largely different (if related at all) themes. Some of them are hilarious - a doctor offers his patient a cigarette while confirming his cancer diagnosis; some are simply perverse - whereas a teenager asks his old woman lover for sex, a group of monks are playing poker next door, and when most of them finally visit a couple's room for a drink, they suddenly find themselves the audience of a spanking S&M play; and some are funny but rather meaningless - a sniper kills strangers on the streets from a tall building and is sentenced to death penalty, only to be (unreasonbly) released and treated as the people's hero.
Frankly speaking, 'The Phantom of Liberty' shouldn't be rated among the best of the director's works. It's flat-out ridiculous for a large part of its runtime. While some episodes are still able to illustrate the talent of the master social satirist, there are more of them here that look blank and pointless (and more importantly, not particularly funny). The most memorable scene in this film is no doubt the rather sick dining room sequence, in which characters sit around a table on LAVATORIES; and when they finally need to feed themselves, they need to hide in the "last room on the right" to eat as if dining is itself a shameful act.
Among all the episodes, the one I like most is definitely the 'missing person' case. A couple of parents are called to their daughter's school and told that their daughter has vanished from the classroom. The parents then decide to report to the police. But the thing is, the daughter has always been in the same room with the parents (both in the classroom and the police station), and she even answers questions from her parents and helps the police inspector fill out her own missing-person form! Gee... what a mystery! Hate me if you will, I just can't resist to give out this spoiler: the police actually 'finds' the girl some 14 months later! By today's rating standard, I can't possibly imagine how bad a movie has to be to include a plot like this. To tell a story this crazy (or idiotic) and still be widely recognized as a master, Luis Bunuel is truly one of a kind.
rating: 6/10
The Phantom of Liberty (Le Fantome de la liberte)
year: 1974
country: Italy, France
directed by: Luis Bunuel
Two little girls are playing in a park. While their guardians aren't paying much attention to them, a creepy man approaches the two girls and offers to give them a "lovely present". The girls follow the man to a quiet corner and the man gives them a pack of photos, and warns them not to show them to any adults. Upon returning home, one of the girls gives the photos to her mother, and the mother soon gaspes at the ghastly sight of them. "Ugh... It's obscene!" She exclaims. The photos are then disclosed to be tourist postcards of landmark buildings of different countries.
The film title, 'The Phantom of Liberty', has made reference to the 'The Communist Manifesto' to condemn the bourgeois mentality that fears liberty. In this second last film of the long career of the definitive surrealist master, Luis Bunuel, satires on civilization take on all walks of life, ranging from family, love relations, teaching and medical professions, military, police authority, to even the dead people. It's almost natural that the film opens with the historical episode on the Napoleon army at war and ends with a montage of wild-life animals. After spending decades in exposing the absurdity of modern life, it's interesting to look at the conclusion Bunuel made in his last film that deals with the issue: that humans are growing increasingly corrupt with the advance of technology and they end up in the same league as animals.
Instead of adopting a traditional narrative form, this movie opts to operate its plot in a free-flow manner. Each episode tells the strange tale of one or a group of characters, and as they come across different people subsequently, the narrative moves on to the next character(s). As the film is seriosly fragmented, it's difficult to rate the whole thing as an entirety, especially since the different episodes often have largely different (if related at all) themes. Some of them are hilarious - a doctor offers his patient a cigarette while confirming his cancer diagnosis; some are simply perverse - whereas a teenager asks his old woman lover for sex, a group of monks are playing poker next door, and when most of them finally visit a couple's room for a drink, they suddenly find themselves the audience of a spanking S&M play; and some are funny but rather meaningless - a sniper kills strangers on the streets from a tall building and is sentenced to death penalty, only to be (unreasonbly) released and treated as the people's hero.
Frankly speaking, 'The Phantom of Liberty' shouldn't be rated among the best of the director's works. It's flat-out ridiculous for a large part of its runtime. While some episodes are still able to illustrate the talent of the master social satirist, there are more of them here that look blank and pointless (and more importantly, not particularly funny). The most memorable scene in this film is no doubt the rather sick dining room sequence, in which characters sit around a table on LAVATORIES; and when they finally need to feed themselves, they need to hide in the "last room on the right" to eat as if dining is itself a shameful act.
Among all the episodes, the one I like most is definitely the 'missing person' case. A couple of parents are called to their daughter's school and told that their daughter has vanished from the classroom. The parents then decide to report to the police. But the thing is, the daughter has always been in the same room with the parents (both in the classroom and the police station), and she even answers questions from her parents and helps the police inspector fill out her own missing-person form! Gee... what a mystery! Hate me if you will, I just can't resist to give out this spoiler: the police actually 'finds' the girl some 14 months later! By today's rating standard, I can't possibly imagine how bad a movie has to be to include a plot like this. To tell a story this crazy (or idiotic) and still be widely recognized as a master, Luis Bunuel is truly one of a kind.
rating: 6/10