Bunuel Continued

Going back in time, then forward again. I guess it makes sense when viewing the films of a director who seems so intent on dismantling the fabric of traditional narrative devices in order to tell a story in his own way. Since watching The Phantom Of Liberty, I watched the film that came just prior to that one, the more celebrated The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie, and more recently I watched the film that just followed it, That Obscure Object of Desire, which as it turns out, was the last film Luis Bunuel made. 

In many ways, these films could be a trilogy. They all share some of the same cast members, and each is a collaboration between Bunuel and Jean-Claude Carriere. Each has the trademark Bunuel surrealist tilt, balancing the plausible and acutely perceptive with the absurd. In many respects, Phantom, is the most overtly skewed from reality, while the other two employ a more conventional narrative approach to point out the hypocrisy and idiocy of human interaction and etiquette. I tend to think that despite its lack of adherence to traditional storytelling, Phantom is the most enjoyable because of the way Bunuel so cleverly bends the rules of logic to great effect. The situations that he comes up with are so poignant and often quite funny.

The other two films serve as bookends of sorts, with a bit more sinister appeal. The main character in both is played by Fernando Rey, who is so brilliantly underhanded and classy at the same time. In both, he plays part of that privileged class, with both money and influence at his disposal, but while in Discreet Charm he seems to always be in control of the situation at hand, in Obscure Object it is quite the opposite.

Interestingly, terrorism is at the heart of both films, the later of which is That Obscure Object of Desire, which was made in 1977, more than a decade before the infamous hijacking of Pan Am flight 103 put terrorism in the forefront of public consciousness. There is much discussion of terrorism in both films, with various manifestations of killings and bombings being depicted within the narrative. In one scene in Obscure Object, we even spot a headline in the newspaper reporting news of a plan being hijacked and blown up. Despite Bunuel's apparent obsession with the subject, he does not treat it as a sacred cow, frequently poking fun at it, for instance with the myriad of acronym monikers for fringe political groups, such as the RABJ or Revolutionary Army of the Baby Jesus.

Obsession does seem to be appropriate though. Particularly in Obscure Object, Rey's character becomes enamored with a woman who seems to constantly be wavering between her undying love and affection and her sadistic torment of him. In true Bunuel style, the love interest in this film is played by two different actresses, who look very much alike. I did not notice it until after I watched the entire film, then went back and realized, depending on the situation or mood of the character, she seemed to be played by a different actress, sometimes within the same scene. It's an interesting idea, and a curious one, though it seems to reflect the capriciousness of the character.  

While these two films are more subtle than Phantom in their surrealist tendencies, there is symbolism everywhere. In Discreet Charm, Bunuel takes great liberty with a series of dreams from the viewpoint of different characters. The context and situations accentuate the elements of fantasy that audiences would expect from Bunuel, with each one getting more outrageous. When each of the sleepers wakes, we discover that the entire scene has been part of their dream, including the previous visions and the subsequent awakening by the different characters within that phantasm, which lead  the audience to believe that it had been their dream. And so the meanings keep stacking on top of one another, continually evolving. It is one of those situations that leaves you wondering, much like Bunuel's work in general, what is fantasy and what is reality?