SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

gonzaleztony224 To begin, I had the opportunity to watch this movie as a student in a foreign film studies class. The professor literally spoke nothing of this film and just said to watch. Then the roller coaster I rode was amazing. Every scene just kept slapping me in different directions putting me in a state of exciting confusion. I understood nothing during my first watch. There was an ending scene where the director gave the audience just an ostrich looking towards the distance while gunshots rang in the background. We had a weekend gap before the professor gave us some context in the movie but that whole weekend just had me thinking. Wondering daily what the movie meant to the point where I lectured all my friends on it looking for something, a window of clarity. Then the day came and then he explained the movies point, to open the audience to the ideas that complete freedom can be dangerous and that you shouldn't take everything at face value, in a sense, question everything. This started a domino effect on the past memories of my life. In particular one English teacher that I had for three years in high school. His teaching methods were very different. He would break random pointing sticks and toss markers at the board, as well as slapping on random desk through out the class period. This caused me to just disregard him as crazy. When I saw this movie a second time it literally just brought me back to the class, and it answered the questions I never knew I had. This professor showed us a story that explained Plato's allegory of the cave. To those who aren't familiar with it, in summary, prisoners are chained up in a cave facing a wall for their entire lives. Behind them is a torch that reflected the shadows of those who passed by and for them, all they knew were the sounds of commotion and the images of the shadows. They knew nothing more. One day, a prisoner manages to escape the cave and witnesses the world. Sees buildings and people and society. To him its something amazing and never ever before seen. The only problem is when he comes back to tell the other prisoners but they just see him as crazy. Talking about things that to them seems impossible. This movie did that to me. It helped me escape my cave. After I saw this movie I began to see things differently and approach my decisions in life with more confidence because really, things aren't as big or as hard as our minds have been hardwired to believe they are. This movie made me feel free by the end of it. Made my doubts that I had in high school seem okay. It even inspired me to write some new stories to maybe make films about one day based on the ideas I had that society would see as just a teenager being a teenager. I am really proud to be human with ideas and just view points, and now I just flip things and look at them in different perspectives. I feel this movie exemplifies what it means to be an artist. Showing the world in ways that are not always the norm, which to me is a great from of expression. This movie has greatly opened my mind and I recommend it to any one in confusing times in their life. I really wish I had seen this movie earlier because it really just gave my weird teenage years of doubt purpose and meaning. I finally feel okay to be myself and express my art in the way I choose. In my acting and filming I am not afraid of my opinions anymore, and Im not afraid to break the rules in the art world. I am finally out of the cave.. and loving every minute of it.

mmorataya131 What's wrong is wrong and what's right is right, no? No. Not in Buñuel's surrealist outlook of society. His in your face attitude over subject matters such as incest, religion, and all around things that would be labeled as taboos leave you squirming in discomfort. As uncomfortable as you might feel and as strange as it all may seem, Buñuel puts you in that position for a reason. Why is it wrong for a nephew to love his much older aunt? Why is this man being treated like a celebrity and given freedom when he has gun down innocents? Why was the head of the police losing his mind and why was he still allowed to make decisions? He makes you place your moral conventions front and center and question everything you've ever been taught. Buñuel asks "What would the world be with total freedom?" Would it be like this?What's right is wrong and what's wrong is right

annemariesnow Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of Luis Buñuel! In the video introduction to The Phantom of Liberty, screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière noted that he and Director Luis Buñuel set out with the premise of presenting the audience with a series of stories (tableaux) and then, just as each story gets interesting, ending the story, and moving on to another story. Such a premise for a movie could be a disaster but under the masterful direction and writing of Buñuel and Carrière, the end result is brilliant.More than just turning traditional story telling on its head and making us examine our expectations of storytelling, the filmmaker turns social mores, customs and taboos on their head and make us examine our expectations of such societal constructs.The tableaux flows easily from one to another and never appear disjointed, leaving us free to become immersed in Bunuel's whimsical, farcical, touching, and provocative topsy-turvy world.

orazarnegar Imagine a world where all the rules of social conduct were flip flopped and then thrown out the window. A world in which murderers are hailed as celebrities. A world where age is nothing but a number and 'aunt' is nothing but a title. One in which it's perceivable to be woken up by an ostrich and to have your mailman deliver your mail straight to your bed. A world in which monks drink alcohol and police officers behave like school children. A world in which parents act as if their children are invisible and people sit around a table to talk about defecation. Is this starting to sound familiar? Luis Bunuel gives us a peek at what absolute freedom looks like and it is incredibly too similar to our own world. Killers become household names and movies are made about their lives while their innocent victims remain nameless and faceless. Hugh Hefner is an idol to men all over the world because he is constantly surrounded by women young enough to be his great grandchildren. Incest is all too common in many countries around the world, something the professor at the police academy tried to explain. Sexual taboos are so prevalent that there are entire websites and organizations dedicated to them. Religious figures breaking boundaries are not something unheard of, neither is the concept of police officers acting childish and petty. Also, parents have been ignoring their children since the beginning of time. A phantom of liberty provides a little window for all to look through and see what absolute freedom looks like and its repercussions. It explores taboos and subjects that people are generally uncomfortable about. It addresses concepts and actions that one culture may praise while another may call barbaric. Because of Bunuel's background and what was going on in Spain at the time, he became obsessed with the concept of freedom. That's why freedom is such a prevalent theme in this movie. This movie really makes you take a good look at the world around you. It's a visual form of satire.