Specter and illusion Much ink has already been spilled on this seemingly enigmatic film by Luis Buñuel. Hereafter, an attempt to analyze some of the obvious and hidden aspects of this masterpiece. The film uses two notions of the word 'phantom': specter (menace) and illusion. The film also plays on many levels: political, religious, social, mental / physical, symbolical, psychoanalytical.
Political The slogan 'Down with liberty' is heard at the beginning and at the end of the film. Its message is clear. First, we witness a staging of the famous Goya painting 'The Third of May, 1808' where Spanish prisoners, shouting this slogan, are shot by the French Republican army. 'Down with liberty' means here 'Down with the French Republic' and its sans-culottes, the defenders of the progressive motto 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity'. At the end of the film, the spectator vaguely hears a crowd (apparently a manifestation) which shouts the same slogan. The film was shot during a period when the Communist Party in France still had important political and social clout, especially through its trade union. This party was at that time heavily influenced by a totalitarian state, which was fundamentally opposed to certain freedoms, including political ones. 'Down with liberty' means here also 'Down with the French Republic'.
Religion, Justice Religion (Catholicism) was (is) also threatened by liberty and the sans-culottes. The viewer assists at a desecration of a church and of holy bread by the French Republican army. In addition, for L. Buñuel, representatives of the Church are corrupt: in the film, monks play cards and drink alcohol. A sniper kills people indiscriminately in the street, apparently to sow panic among the population; so, it's a provocation (an utmost topical issue). He is condemned, but the sentences of the judges are not respected. To the contrary, the sniper is set free and congratulated by the judicial administration and by part of the population: down with liberty of justice.
Physical and mental life A challenging aspect of the movies by L. Buñuel is the dissociation between the physical (time, space) and mental (sentiments) reality. One can see a perfect example of this dissociation in another film by L. Buñuel (An Andalusian Dog), where a father slaps his son, followed by the text 'thirteen years later' and the action continues. In other words, in a split of a second (the slap) the son becomes thirteen years older (psychological time). This dissociation is (perhaps) an explanation of the sequence of the film where a girl disappears while being present. She is physically present, but not mentally for her parents.
Illusion Freedom is an illusion in matter of instincts (like for the animals of the zoo). In this regard, scenes of sexual deviances are constants in the films of L. Buñuel as are dream sequences. Other psychoanalytic elements in this movie are anal fixation (a dinner where the guests are sitting on a toilet) or a split personality (the two prefects at the end of the film). Liberty as an illusion is the basic outline of the screenplay: the journey of the characters is all the time disrupted by unforeseen encounters, accidents or bad weather.
The end of the film is a shot of an ostrich head, as if L. Buñuel exhorts the spectator: don't put your head in the sand like an ostrich, but do face head-on the (hidden) reality as the bird on the screen.
Se non è vero, è molto ben trovato ?