Phantom of Liberty

views updated

Phantom of Liberty ★★★½ Le Fantome de la Liberte; The Specter of Freedom 1974

Master surrealist Bunuel's episodic film wanders from character to character and from event to event. Animals wander through a man's bedroom, soldiers conduct military exercises in an inhabited area, a missing girl stands before her parents even as they futilely attempt to determine her whereabouts, and an assassin is found guilty, then applauded and led to freedom. They don't get much more surreal than this. If you think you may like it, you'll probably love it. Bunuel, by the way, is among the firing squad vicitms in the film's opening enactment of Goya's May 3, 1808. In French with English subtitles. 104m/C VHS, DVD . FR Adriana Asti, Jean-Claude Brialy, Michel Piccoli, Adolfo Celi, Monica Vitti, Milena Vukotic, Michael (Michel) Lonsdale, Claude Pieplu, Julien Bertheau, Paul Frankeur, Paul Le Person, Bernard Verley; D: Luis Bunuel; W: Luis Bunuel, Jean-Claude Carriere; C: Edmond Richard.