An uproarious summary of Luis Bunuel's surrealistic concerns in a collection of anecdotes starring Jean-Claude Brialy, Michel Piccoli, and Monica Vitti.
The Phantom of Liberty (1974)
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Reviews Counted:16
Fresh:14
Rotten:2
Average Rating:8.3/10
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: A dreamlike, surrealistic film that playfully looks at politics, religion and sex. The film offers tantalizing fragments of narrative that it explores briefly and then leaves behind: a child... A dreamlike, surrealistic film that playfully looks at politics, religion and sex. The film offers tantalizing fragments of narrative that it explores briefly and then leaves behind: a child accepts some strange photographs from an unsavory character in a playground -- only the images aren't quite what one would expect; a nurse spends the night at an inn and meets some very bizarre priests; a sniper ascends a glistening new French skyscraper and shoots at the crowds below, only to become a celebrity, not a pariah; and tearful parents beg the police to find their missing child -- who's beside them the whole time insisting she's not lost. Bunuel attacks society's false pretensions to freedom, and its distorted ideas of liberty and religion in this crazy, off- beat comedy that goes from high wit to groundling guffaws. [More]
Starring: Jean-Claude Brialy, Michel Piccoli, Monica Vitti, Adriana Asti
Starring: Jean-Claude Brialy, Michel Piccoli, Monica Vitti, Adriana Asti
Director: Luis Buñuel
Director: Luis Buñuel
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Reviews for The Phantom of Liberty
as illusory as a dream about a mailman and as real as the letter you find in your hand
The Phantom of Liberty moves with great confidence and comfort. Odd that such a wicked film should feel comfortable, but there you have it. That's Bunuel.
A tour de force, a triumph by a director confronting almost impossible complications and contradictions and mastering them. It's very funny, all right, but remember: With Buñuel, you only laugh when it hurts.
The physical production is stunning to look at. The cast is large, first-rate, but the presence that dazzles us is that of the Old Master, just off screen, mercilessly testing our senses of sanity and humor.
This heady masterwork isn’t particularly easy to decipher, but it’s best approached as the literal comedy of manners Buñuel intends it to be.
Albeit scattershot, Phantom does cohere as a satire of keeping up appearances in which everything is as it appears.
The challenging lack of a narrative center doesn't prevent this film from having a great deal to say about the modern world and its ambivalent grasp of freedom.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 15% 15% | The Ugly Truth |
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 45% 45% | Shorts |
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