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The Phantom of Liberty

From Rev. Syung Myung Me:
This is probably my favorite Luis Bunuel, with the possible exception of L'Age D'Or. It's actually really a lot like a Monty Python movie; it's basically a series of gags that drift along. Some bits are a little slow (the scene with the kid and the aunt in the hotel, before it goes to the gambling monks), but other bits are really great (the missing girl; the pornographic picture scene; the sniper). Defintely recommended.

In the liner notes on the Criterion Collection edition, they mention that in Luis Bunuel's last few films, it can be hard to tell which scenes go with which films. This is true; a while ago, a local theater played a double bill of The Phantom of Liberty and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. I'd seen Phantom once or twice before and Discreet about 4 or 5 by that point. During one of the reel changes, there was a mistake, and during Phantom they played a little bit from Discreet – the dream sequence about the soldier in the empty town talking to his dead mother. I double-taked but thought "Oh, I guess that was in this one!", and the scene actually got about halfway over before the projectionist realized, and stopped the film to announce he'd put on the wrong reel. It was kind of funny, because it slotted right in perfectly. Had the projectionist just found some way to seamlessly slip back to Phantom after that dream sequence, no one would have been the wiser.

From sosodada:
The Phantom of Liberty is Luis Bunuel's most exasperating movie, but perhaps the most surreal – a family reporting a kid gone missing (with the very same kid right there), a poet-truned-sniper that apparently develops a Manson-type family of sycophants; monks playing poker with religious medals as chips get invited to an s/m party (the MISTRESS is HOT – but there's only a few frames of her, dammit) . . . not everyone's cup of tea, but I would recommend it anyway. Part of the Criterion Collection.

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