Cheap Phantom of Liberty (Video) (Jean-Claude Brialy, Adolfo Celi, Michel Piccoli, Monica Vitti) (Luis Buñuel) Price

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Customer Reviews of Phantom of Liberty

Bunuel's next-to-last film is one of his best
Made two years after 'The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie', this film is both similar to and different from its predecessor: it is episodic and bourgeoisie is one of its main targets, but it contains more shots and scenes (it feels more dynamic), its tone is somewhat cruder and it is mostly geared towards individual quests, whereas 'Charm' usually dealt with almost all of the main characters at the same time; the 'Charm' elements 'Phantom' tends to recall are the stories that were told by supporting characters, and the bishop character himself (the man who played him, Julien Bertheau, has another very good role here). As strange as it may seem, the narrative is fairly linear throughout since the apparent breaks always flow from what has just gone on, although Bunuel characteristically chooses the most unpredictable transitions; it reminds me of a painting by the surrealist Yves Tanguy, 'Le Ruban des Exces', in which abstract forms mingle audaciously from the left side of the picture to the right without any interruption. Authority figures - policemen, judges, doctors, teachers, clergymen, parents - are first established in their customary roles only to lose their power and dignity soon after, often in surprising ways. The film's vignettes have been deemed 'existential' - I'd argue that the absurdity Bunuel considers here is not a source of anguish, but of art, absurdity being a means for the artist; it also hides a meticulous structure. This work's reputation is not quite as high as that of 'The Discreet Charm...', but it might be even better.

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Bunuel at the top of his form
Another great work by Luis Bunuel, The Phantom of Liberty has more outright humor in it than probably any of his other films. When the private and public functions of eating and evacuating are reversed, and monks congregate in a room to watch a man get spanked by a dominatrix, and a soldier passionately kisses a statue, and a haughty professor's butt gets tagged with a full-of-pins paper cutout by some immature cadets, you know you're having fun.

Here it really seems as though Bunuel was essentially making fun of his own intense desire to engage in biting satire, because the feeling is much more of letting loose with some laugh-out-loud antics rather than the need to mercilessly slash and burn social conventions. This is a much lighter film than one would typically expect from Bunuel, and yet that is not at all related to its significance. It's a sharp piece of cinema, full of irreverence that, as many have already indicated, is closer to Monty Python than anything else.

Bunuel's sense of fun here does not require a plot, just as many of his other films don't. But in this film the lack of formal narrative actually seems to work better than in several of his other works; we keep waiting for the next scene to see if it will top what we've just seen--regardless whether there's logic in the seguing or not (there almost always isn't).

A lot of fun and very highly recommended.

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A minor Bunuel masterpiece, but still a masterpiece
The Phantom of Liberty is made up of a series of surrealist vignettes held together by the loosest of narrative structures - Think of a Monty Python episode without the laughter-track. The opening scene has prisoners facing a firing squad, defiantly clenching their raised fists, and shouting, "Down with freedom" and "Long live chains." This pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the film. In another memorable scene, guests sit down at the dining table, but instead of chairs, they sit on toilets. To talk about food at the table is the height of vulgarity. There are other scenes just as good. This film may sound arty-farty, but it works and works brilliantly, and in no small part due to Luis Bunuel, who directs with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of effect. Don't let the surrealist tag put you off. This film is fun and was meant to be so. This may not be quite up there with the rest of Bunuel's classics : Belle De Jour, Simon of the Desert, or The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, with which The Phantom of Liberty has something in common; but it is still a minor masterpiece and will delight and baffle in equal measure.