Cet obscur objet du désir (1977) - film review

Shortly after boarding a train, a man pours a bucket of water over a woman standing on the platform.  To justify this act to his fellow passengers, the man explains how the woman, the object of his desire, thwarted and abused his well-intended passions.

Luis Buñuel’s final film, made when the director was well into his seventies, is a typically subversive and highly entertaining romantic comedy.  The eternal war between the sexes, which has dominated Buñuel’s cinema since his very first film, Un chien Andalou, is brilliantly constructed, with some familiar Buñuelesque surrealist touches.

Buñuel’s masterstroke is to cast two women in the part of Conchita, the elusive object of desire of the film’s title.  Carole Bouquet plays the cool, seductive side of Conchita’s character, whilst Ángela Molina plays the alternately voluptuous and stand-offish side.  It is a device that is remarkably effective, illustrating both the elusive, multi-faceted nature of Conchita and the apparent blindness of her obsessed suitor, Mathieu, to her changing nature.  Mathieu is played by the charismatic Spanish actor Fernando Rey (his voice dubbed into French by Michael Piccoli).

The conflict between Mathieu and Conchita is set, in true Buñuel fashion, against the backdrop of an escalating series of terrorist attacks incited by the Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus.  The result is an explosive, intelligent comedy which represents one of the highlights of French cinema of the 1970s.


© James Travers 2000

See also:
The life of Luis Buñuel
Un chien Andalou
L’Age d’or
Viridiana
El Angel exterminador
Belle du jour
Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie
French fantasy films




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