Synopsis
Bourgeois convention is demolished in Luis Buñuel’s surrealist gem The Phantom of Liberty. Featuring an elegant soiree with guests seated at toilet bowls, poker-playing monks using religious medals as chips, and police officers looking for a missing girl who is right under their noses, this perverse, playfully absurd comedy of non sequiturs deftly compiles many of the themes that preoccupied Buñuel throughout his career—from the hypocrisy of conventional morality to the arbitrariness of social arrangements.
Cast
| Sister of the 1st police commissioner/Lady in black | Adriana Asti |
| 1st police commissioner | Julien Bertheau |
| M. Foucauld | Jean-Claude Brialy |
| M. Legendre’s physician | Adolfo Celi |
| Mlle Rosenblum | Anne-Marie Deschott |
| Innkeeper | Paul Frankeur |
| The sniper | Pierre Lary |
| The hatter | Michel Lonsdale |
| The police academy instructor | Francois Maistre |
| The Foucaulds’ nursemaid | Muni |
| Old aunt | Hélène Perdrière |
| The 2nd police commissioner | Michel Piccoli |
| Chief of police | Claude Piéplu |
| M. Legendre | Jean Rochefort |
| French Army captain | Bernard Verley |
| Mme Foucauld | Monica Vitti |
| Nurse | Milena Vukotic |
Credits
| Director | Luis Buñuel |
| Screenplay | Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière |
| Producer | Serge Silberman |
| Assistant directors | Jacques Frankel and Pierre Lary |
| Cinematography | Edmond Richard |
| Production Design | Pierre Guffroy |
| Sound | Guy Villette |
| Costume design | Jacqueline Guyot |
| Makeup | Monique Archambault |
| Editing | Hélène Plemiannikov |
| Production manager | Ully Pickard |
Disc Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Video introduction by screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Original theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A 32-page booklet featuring a new essay by critic Gary Indiana and a reprinted interview with Buñuel
From the Current
The Phantom of Liberty:
The Serpentine Movements of Chance
by
May 23, 2004
Of the various insects that like to make their home in our houses, certainly the most interesting, for her beautiful shape, her curious . . .
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List Bunuel's films from least to most surreal
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