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THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE Send This Review to a Friend
One of the best films you can see this summer, or any summer for that matter, is a revival. Master director Luis Bunuel's 1977 classic "That Obscure Object of Desire," which he also co-wrote with Jean-Claude Carriere based on a novel by Pierre Louys, is being brought back in all its glory. In French with English subtitles, the immensely entertaining, imaginative and still timely work of the late director bubbles with sophisticated humor about the battle of the sexes set against a background of terrorism that is closing in on its characters.
Fernando Rey plays Mathieu, a wealthy, aging aristocrat who is smitten by Conchita, a young woman hired as his maid. He is determined to bed her, but she is an elusive prey. In a masterstroke of casting, Bunuel has two actresses play the same role, cool, sophisticated looking Carole Bouquet and the more earthy Angela Molina. Bunuel supposedly cast both because he couldn't decide on which actress to select. Whatever his reasoning, the decision gives the film a special quality and doubles the entertainment pleasure.
The dramatic effect is also twofold. With two actresses one can see the different moods of Conchita, sometimes enticing, other times cruelly rejecting. But it also sheds light on the inability of the man to see beyond the surface of the woman he is pursuing. She is really just an object, as he never notices the change whenever he meets her. Thus the casting is much more than a conceit.
For all his money, his valet, his ability to travel anywhere on a whim and lavish his wealth on the woman he wants for his own, Mathieu is powerless to conquer Conchita and powerless in the face of the encroaching terrorism, referred to in radio bulletins or shown in scary nearby actions. In a sense the film is a metaphor for our helplessness in the face of such terrorism, a situation that remains as pertinent to our world today as does the sexual sparring. It wouldn't be a Bunuel film without some enigma, and one can interpret the ending differently.
There are too many marvelous scenes to detail, but the framework itself is clever, as Mathieu recounts his tale to an unusual collection of travelers in a train compartment after they are shocked by seeing him dump a bucket of water on a woman. Some of the efforts at seduction are also pricelessly funny, especially as he attempts to penetrate the mysteries of a forbidding undergarment. There is also the grasping character of Conchita's mother, who is quite content to receive financial aid from the wealthy suitor.
"That Obscure Object of Desire," Bunuel's final work, is one of his finest, most witty achievements, a film that reflects the wisdom of an older director yet projects the youthful enthusiasm of someone who might just be starting out. The pleasures in seeing it again or viewing it for the first time are abundant.
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