30 November 2011

That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Bunuel, 1977)

8.5/10
Bunuel's final film is pretty straightforward in plot, but there's so many little things that stick in the mind afterward - what's the significance of the characters on the train having all already met? What's with the brown sack Mathieu carries around? Why the backdrop of terrorism, aside from providing a great way to both begin and end the film? Who is in the wrong between Mathieu and Conchita, and how wrong are they, really? Ironically, what should be the biggest puzzler of them all (Conchita is played by two different women, and they interchange sometimes even within the same scene) turns out to have a pretty banal explanation - the original actress quit, and Bunuel couldn't settle on just one woman to embody the character. Both work brilliantly and the changes are never distracting. Anyway I thought it was a really interesting look at the sexual politics between men and women. Alternatingly funny, sad, and ridiculous.
I really have to dig into early Bunuel movies. It occured to me that aside from Un Chien Andalou, I haven't seen anything he's done pre-1960.

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