The Phantom of Liberty Film Still

The Phantom of Liberty

Luis Buñuel

France

1974

104 minutes

Color

1.85:1

French

290

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 blackAdriana Asti
1st police commissionerJulien Bertheau
M. FoucauldJean-Claude Brialy
M. Legendre’s physicianAdolfo Celi
Mlle RosenblumAnne-Marie Deschott
InnkeeperPaul Frankeur
The sniperPierre Lary
The hatterMichel Lonsdale
The police academy instructorFrancois Maistre
The Foucaulds’ nursemaidMuni
Old auntHélène Perdrière
The 2nd police commissionerMichel Piccoli
Chief of policeClaude Piéplu
M. LegendreJean Rochefort
French Army captainBernard Verley
Mme FoucauldMonica Vitti
NurseMilena Vukotic

Credits

DirectorLuis Buñuel
ScreenplayLuis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière
ProducerSerge Silberman
Assistant directorsJacques Frankel and Pierre Lary
CinematographyEdmond Richard
Production DesignPierre Guffroy
SoundGuy Villette
Costume designJacqueline Guyot
MakeupMonique Archambault
EditingHélène Plemiannikov
Production managerUlly 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 Gary Indiana 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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