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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