Das Gespenst der Freiheit (1974)

Das Gespenst der Freiheit: Directed by Luis Buñuel. With Adriana Asti, Julien Bertheau, Jean-Claude Brialy, Adolfo Celi. A series of surreal sequences that critique morality and society in a stream of consciousness style.

“Buñuel seems to be even more brilliant without the screenplays by Salvador Dali (un Chien Andalou, lu0026#39;Age du0026#39;or, both 1930). Of course Jean-Claude Carriere is not a small name either, but Buñuel must be the great mind behind this masterpiece. Fantome seems to take off right from the premises of u0026#39;Le Voie lacteeu0026#39; (1969), as people seem to move in mysterious ways and mysterious things happen to them, there sometimes even seems to be time-traveling. Anything can happen along the way. But whereto leads the way? Who knows the direction and if so, does that direction make sense and to whom?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eYes, this film raises a lot of questions and that must be Buñuelu0026#39;s greatest power: question what youu0026#39;ve always taken for granted. In any way, Buñuel continues his u0026#39;unrestricted creativenessu0026#39; as someone on IMDb named it. Absurd, bizarre, subversive, anti-clericism, magic realism, surrealism, sophistry, you name it! Everything is in here. He seems to have returned to the experimental years (1929, 1930) completely. He probably thought he could get away with that because Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972) won an Academy Award for best foreign picture and Buñuel figured that everybody would be going to see this film, no matter how off the wall it was.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn Voie Lactee is a heated conversation between a catholic and a Jesuit about personal freedom that comes to a mysterious compromise when the Jesuit exclaims: u0026#39;Ma liberte est un fantom!u0026#39; That is worked out here in Fantome de la liberte for a wider audience, in that we donu0026#39;t have to know much about the differences between catholics and Jesuits to be able to understand whatu0026#39;s going on. Well, maybe most of the time. The other part it is just plain fun to watch and get your world turned upside down (Thatu0026#39;s why Catch-22 (Nichols, 1970) is my personal favourite film).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCinematographer Edmond Richard (Charme discret de la bourgeoisie 1972, Cet obscure object du desir 1977) who should have won an Academy Award for u0026#39;Le Procesu0026#39; (Welles, 1963) demonstrates that he can collaborate with Buñuel fabulously in Buñuelu0026#39;s last three films. Still I feel Iu0026#39;m missing the point of this film by a long shot. But that just gives me a reason to see it again soon! For now Iu0026#39;m just very thankful that someone recommended this to me.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e10 points out of 10 :-)”