Le fantôme de la liberté (1974)

Director:

Luis Buñuel

Writers:

Luis Buñuel (writer)
Jean-Claude Carrière (writer)

Release Date:

27 October 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

One of Luis Bunuel's most free-form and purely Surrealist films, consisting of a series of only vaguely related episodes - most famously...

Plot Keywords:

Dinner | Absurdism | Whipping | Toilet | Absurd Humor

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Adriana Asti	...	La dame en noir et la soeur du premier préfet / Prefect's Sister
Julien Bertheau	...	Le premier préfet de police / First Prefect
Jean-Claude Brialy	...	Foucauld / Mr. Foucauld
Adolfo Celi	...	Le docteur de Legendre / Doctor Pasolini
Paul Frankeur	...	L'aubergiste / Innkeeper
Michael Lonsdale	...	Le chapelier / Hatter
Pierre Maguelon	...	Gérard, le gendarme / Policeman
François Maistre	...	Le professeur des gendarmes / Professor
Hélène Perdrière	...	La vieille tante / Aunt
Michel Piccoli	...	Le second préfet de police / Second Prefect
Claude Piéplu	...	Le commissaire de police / Commissioner
Jean Rochefort	...	Legendre / Mr. Legendre
Bernard Verley	...	Le capitaine des dragons / Judge
Milena Vukotic	...	L'infirmière / Nurse
Monica Vitti	...	Mme Foucaud / Mrs. Foucauld

Also Known As:

Il fantasma della libertà (Italy)
The Phantom of Liberty
The Specter of Freedom

Runtime:

USA:104 min | Argentina:104 min | West Germany:103 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Ireland:15 | West Germany:16 (f) | Austria:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R

Company:

Euro International Film (EIA)

Trivia:

Director's trademark: [insects] Foucauld places a large framed spider on the mantelpiece after declaring that he is "sick of symmetry"

Quotes:

Le docteur de Legendre/Doctor Pasolini: You have cancer of the liver.
Legendre/Mr. Legendre: Cancer? Me?
Le docteur de Legendre/Doctor Pasolini: It's in a fairly advanced state. But today, you know, these things... Cigarette?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Zomergasten: (#17.2)" (2004)

"On a flimsy ground of reality, imagination spins out and waves new patterns."

This excellent collection of satirical vignettes is my kind of movie - crazy, dark and comical, it goes any direction it wants and does not follow any rules. When we try to grasp for the meaning, it is like a ghost, a phantom that "leaves us with a wisp of vapor in our hands" and disappears - very much like the liberty, the freedom the humans try to find but instead could only see its phantom disappearing. The film follows many characters on its way shifting effortlessly and playfully from the central ones to the minor ones making minor ones the central and going back and forth from one time period to another. It opens in Toledo during the Napoleonic occupation then jumps to the modern day Paris. It could've gone anywhere and introduced me to any character - it still would've been enormously interesting because it was made by the master who had never lost his curiosity, his inquisitive mind, his memory that consisted of the strange and amazing images, his sense of humor, his childhood dreams, his fantasies, dark and shining and who was able to throw them all on the screen like no one ever was able or will be able to do. To understand Bunuel completely would be as impossible as to catch the Phantom of Liberty - he will be always one of the best and unsolved mysteries in the Art of Cinema.