That Obscure Object of Desire [Cet Obscur Objet du Désir] **** (1977, Fernando Rey, Carole Bouquet, Angela Molina) – Classic Movie Review 5084

Co-writer/ director Luis Buñuel’s tantalising last work dates from 1977 and tells in flashback the defiantly inscrutable tale of a discreetly charming bourgeois gentleman, Mathieu (Fernando Rey), obsessively pursuing his alluring former maid, Conchita, who refuses to satisfy his desire.

It is neatly shot by cinematographer Edmond Richard, and the film is packed with strangeness aplenty. Two actresses (Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina) play the maid (supposedly reflecting different sides of her personality), a woman blithely cradles a pig, a man pours a bucket of water over a girl on a train platform, and terrorist acts are carried out by the ‘Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus’.

It is not quite vintage Buñuel, perhaps, but close to it. Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière’s screenplay, swinging between cool eroticism and noisy violence, is jam-packed with provocative ideas. And the film remains an ever-fascinating mix of the brilliant and the bizarre.

Spanish director Buñuel films in French and his Spanish star is dubbed by Michel Piccoli.

The screenplay is taken from Pierre Louys’s novel La Femme et Le Pantin, previously filmed as The Devil Is a Woman (1935) with Marlene Dietrich.

It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film (Spain) and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars.

Also in the cast are Julien Bertheau, André Weber, Piéral, Milena Vukotik, Maria Asquerino, Ellen Bahl and Valérie Blanco.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5084

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