This was Luis Bunuel's final and most personal work, which he completed while he was in his 70's. Bunuel was always interested in the surreal and dreams, "Phantom of Liberty" especially. The movie constantly shifts in narrative, beginning to develop some story or character and suddenly switching to another minor character as the scene peaks in interest; the minor character is then developed in a new scene. Each situation is more ridiculous and surreal than the one before it. One of the early scenes in the movie is a creepy looking man in a park who shows some pictures to little girls and tells them not to show any adults. When the girl's parents find the pictures they are disgusted to find images of famous landmarks. It challenges our assumptions in a brilliant way; the viewer assumes that the pictures are inappropriate and sexual in nature and that the man in the trench coat at the park is a pedophile, when in reality the pictures are of buildings and landmarks. My favorite is the "dinner scene" where people sit defecating together at a table and individually excuse themselves to privately eat in a little "bathroom." When a little girl at the table tells her mom that she is hungry, her mom warns her not to talk like that at the table.
The movie is filled with the sort of irrationality that is completely rational. It's strange, twisted dream logic that shouldn't make sense, yet it does (like the little girl who is simultaneously lost and sitting right next to her parents, who politely ignore her while worrying about the whereabouts of their daughter). And yet to Bunuel, these things are completely real; dreams and fantasies are a part of our individual realities, so why shouldn't they be portrayed in movies? This movie is a lot of fun and is a truly surreal experience.
The movie is filled with the sort of irrationality that is completely rational. It's strange, twisted dream logic that shouldn't make sense, yet it does (like the little girl who is simultaneously lost and sitting right next to her parents, who politely ignore her while worrying about the whereabouts of their daughter). And yet to Bunuel, these things are completely real; dreams and fantasies are a part of our individual realities, so why shouldn't they be portrayed in movies? This movie is a lot of fun and is a truly surreal experience.