Le Fantôme de la Liberté (The Phantom of Liberty) (The Specter of Freedom)1974
Le Fantôme de la Liberté (The Phantom of Liberty) (The Specter of Freedom) (1974)
Le Fantôme de la Liberté (The Phantom of Liberty) (The Specter of Freedom) Photos
Movie Info
Cast
as Mr. Foucauld
as Dr. Legendre/Dr. Pasolini
as Mrs. Foucauld
as Prefect's Sister

as Monk
as Receptionist
as Jean Bermans

as Edith Rosenblum
as 2nd Prefect of Police
as Inspector
as Innkeeper

as 1st Prefect of Police
as Gendarme Gerard

as Captain of Gendarmes

as Colonel of Gendarmes

as Hostess
as Host
as Mme. Calmette

as Sophie
as Professor

as Professor's Wife

as Old Aunt

as Miss Rosenblum

as Her Nephew
as M. Legendre

as Legendre's Nanny

as Mme. Legendre

as Aliette

as Headmistress
as Captain of Dragoons

as Father Gabriel

as Lt. of Dragoons

as Foucauld's Nanny

as Sinister Stranger

as Veronique Foucauld
as Foucauld's Doctor
as Tank Sergeant

as Father Raphael

as Old Monk

as Young Monk

as Bootblack

as Sniper

as Victim

as Judge
as 1st Prefect's Secretary

as Bartender
as Prefect's Mother

as Cemetery Attendant

as Police Sergeant

as 2nd Prefect's Secretary

as Officer

as Officer

as Policeman
Critic Reviews for Le Fantôme de la Liberté (The Phantom of Liberty) (The Specter of Freedom)
All Critics (18) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (2) | DVD (7)
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.
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.
Beneath its lucid exterior, beneath its classical style, The Spectre of Liberty is one of those poetic works: a coherent enigma, inexhaustibly prismatic.
Bunuel's most uninhibited venture though audacious and satisfying my Bunuel pangs, lacks a bite or enough charm to appeal to the masses.
Audience Reviews for Le Fantôme de la Liberté (The Phantom of Liberty) (The Specter of Freedom)
"The Phantom of Liberty" (the penultimate work of director Luis Bunuel's amazing career) is a tricky film to get a handle on, because it's structured like a "Monty Python's Flying Circus" episode. Nothing but quirky vignettes and transitions, with no sense of overall narrative shape. A DVD interview with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere reveals the perverse concept was to follow a story that is abandoned just when it turns most interesting, and then switch to a less interesting story. Wow. Notable sequences span a missing child who isn't really missing, a visit with a sadomasochistic couple, a surreal night of insomnia and the strangest dinner-table scene you'll ever see. Other pieces will fade from memory as soon as the film ends. The cast is stuffed with European actors whose faces are more familiar than their names, including Monica Vitti, Michel Piccoli, Jean Rochefort, Michael Lonsdale and Adolfo Celi.
Super Reviewer
There is a LOT going on in this film! Bunuel takes "modern" society to task in an a very ammusing, slightly dark but always insightful manner. I found it very interesting and had a few good chuckles along the way. Not my favorite Bunuel film...but well worth a watch.

Super Reviewer
Buñuel's dark sense of humour can make us not only witnesses but supporters of this derision to all institutions that rule society. A concatenation of segments that adress tragedies, misbehavings and formalisms with the same farcical tone. Possibly inspired by 'The Saragossa manuscript' one of Buñuel's personal favourite films.
Super Reviewer
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