That
Obscure Object of Desire was Luis Buñuel’s
last film in 1977 after a very long career. His career started in 1929 with the
classic surrealistic short film Un Chien
Andalou. That Obscure… was one of
his most critically successful films where it got nominated for numerous awards
including a Oscar noms for “Best Foreign Language Film” and “Best Adapted
Screenplay”. It stars Fernando Rey who worked frequently with Buñuel during the
60s and 70s. It was also based on the novel “The Women and the Puppet” by Pierre Louÿs which has been adapted many times to film, That Obscure… was
the 5th and final to date.
It tells the story of a middle age
wealthy French man Mathieu
(Fernando Way) and meets Conchita (played by both Carole Bouquet AND Ángela Molina). They start a dysfunctional romance to say the
least against the backdrop of terrorist bombings in France and Spain. The film
starts with Mathieu getting on a train, Conchita is running towards the train
and he pays a train worker to get a bucket of water and he dumps it on her and
he believes their relationship is finished but she sneaks on.
Mathieu meets a group of
people a midget, a friend of cousin, a mother and her daughter on the train. He
tells them his’ story of their extremely complicated relationship. The flashbacks consist of Mathieu
trying to screw Conchita (who claims to be a Virgin) and failing miserably by
escalating absurd reasons why they can’t have sex and the reasons and at one
point she wears a pair of
tightly
laced canvas shorts to
protect her groin region.
The film
as always expected with Buñuel is a
wonderfully twisted satire on the Bourgeoisie,
Religion, Sex and Politics. It’s rip roaringly funny as places and one of the
most astute films on the games women play on men. Fernando Ray is great even
though his lines are actually dubbed by Michael Piccoli but his sense of being
madly in love, frustration and despair is obvious despite this. Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina are also great as Conchita, the beautiful but
totally wicked girl of his dreams.
The film is also one of
his least surreal films. However it’s got very subtle surrealist touches such
as the randomness of a dwarf in Michael’s train cabin, the use of 2 actresses,
a woman carrying a pig like a baby.
Ian Schultz
Rating:18
Re-release Blu-Ray: 10th September 2012 (UK)
Directed by:Luis Buñuel
Cast: Fernando Rey, Carole Bouquet, Julien Bertheau,