jueves, 11 de septiembre de 2008

Le fantôme de la liberté (The Phantom of Liberty) (1974)

The Phantom of Liberty (French: Le Fantôme de la liberté) is a 1974 Luis Buñuel film, produced by Serge Silberman and starring Adriana Asti, Julien Bertheau and Jean-Claude Brialy.


In this film, a series of chance encounters connects a number of disparate, mainly middle class, characters. The story progresses from one situation to the next with no real cause and effect or narrative resolution. It is difficult to summarise the story as the film intentionally attempts to disrupt the conventions of storytelling.
The film opens in Toledo, Spain in 1808 where Napoleonic troops are carrying out summary executions. The story then moves to contemporary France where some children are given exotic images to look at, and their father visits the doctor whose nurse drives to visit her dying father. She stops at a hotel where we meet monks, sadomasochists and incestuous nephews. The nurse leaves the hotel in the morning, giving a professor from the police academy a lift into town. The professor discusses philosophy and social issues with the young recruits, some of whom are later seen stopping a speeding motorist. The motorist visits his doctor and is told that he has cancer of the liver; on returning home he discovers that his daughter has gone missing from school. A sniper is seen randomly killing people from a tower block. The prefect of police goes to visit his dead sister in a mausoleum; he is arrested and taken back to his office where another prefect of police takes him out to see the police control of a riot at the zoological gardens. The phrase "Down with Liberty" (Long live chains) is heard again, as gun-shots and shouting are heard off-camera. The final shot is a close-up of an ostrich’s head.
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