That Obscure Object of Desire

That Obscure Object of Desire
Directed by	Luis Buñuel
Produced by	Serge Silberman
Written by	Luis Buñuel Jean-Claude Carrière Pierre Louÿs (novel La Femme et le Pantin)
Starring	Fernando Rey Carole Bouquet Ángela Molina
Distributed by	First Artists (USA) Criterion (Region 1 DVD)
Release dates	17 August 1977 (1977-08-17)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	France Spain
Language	French, Spanish

That Obscure Object of Desire (French: Cet obscur objet du désir; Spanish: Ese oscuro objeto del deseo), released in 1977, was the final film directed by Luis Buñuel.^{[1] [2]} Set in Spain and France against the backdrop of a terrorist insurgency, the film tells the story of an aging Frenchman who falls in love with a young Spanish woman who repeatedly frustrates his romantic and sexual desires.

In recent years That Obscure Object of Desire has been highly acclaimed by critics.

Plot

A dysfunctional and sometimes violent romance happens between Mathieu (Fernando Rey), a middle-aged, wealthy Frenchman, and a young, impoverished and beautiful flamenco dancer from Seville, Conchita, played by Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina. The two actresses each appear unpredictably in separate scenes, and differ not only physically, but temperamentally as well.

Most of the film is a "flashback," told by Mathieu; the framing, non-flashback story elements appear only at the start and end of the film.

The movie opens with Mathieu travelling by train from Seville to Paris. He's trying to distance himself from his young girlfriend Conchita. As Mathieu's train is ready to depart he finds that a bruised and bandaged Conchita is pursuing him. From the train he pours a bucket of water over her head. He believes this deters her, but she sneaks aboard.

Mathieu's fellow compartment passengers witness his rude act. These include a mother and her young daughter, a judge who is coincidentally a friend of Mathieu's cousin, and a psychologist who coincidentally is a dwarf. They inquire about his motivation for such an act and he then explains the history of his tumultuous relationship with Conchita. The story is set against a backdrop of terrorist bombings and shootings by left-wing groups.

Conchita, who claims to be 18 but looks older, vows to remain a virgin until marriage. She tantalizes Mathieu with sexual promises but never allows him to satisfy his sexual desire. At one point she goes to bed with him wearing a tightly laced canvas corset, which he cannot untie, making it impossible to have sexual intercourse. Conchita's antics cause the couple to break up and reunite repeatedly, each time frustrating and confusing Mathieu.

Eventually, Mathieu finds Conchita dancing nude for tourists in a Seville nightclub. At first he becomes enraged. Later, however, he forgives her and buys her a house. In a climactic scene, soon after moving into the house, Conchita refuses to let Mathieu in at the gate, tells him that she hates him, and that kissing and touching him make her sick. Then, to prove her independence, appears to have sex with a young man in plain view of Mathieu.

After this, Conchita attempts to reconcile with Mathieu, insisting that the sex was fake and that her "lover" is in reality a homosexual friend. However, during her explanation, Mathieu beats her (she then says "Now I'm sure you love me"), causing her bandaged and bruised state seen earlier in the film.

Just as the fellow train passengers seem satisfied with this story, Conchita reappears from hiding and dumps a bucket of water on Mathieu. However, the couple apparently reconciles yet again when the train reaches its destination. After leaving the train, they walk arm in arm, enjoying the streets of Madrid.

Later in a mall in Paris, loudspeakers announce that a strange alliance of extremist groups intends to sow chaos and confusion in society through terrorist attacks. The announcement adds that several right-wing groups plan to counter-attack. As the couple continues their walk, they pass a seamstress in a shop window mending a bloody nightgown. They begin arguing just as a bomb explodes, apparently claiming their lives.

Casting

Spanish actor Fernando Rey (who frequently worked with Buñuel in his later years) plays Mathieu, but his voice is dubbed by Michel Piccoli.

The film is notable for its use of two actresses, Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina, in the single role of Conchita; the actresses switch roles in alternate scenes and sometimes even in the middle of scenes (at one point, Molina walks behind a curtain and Bouquet emerges a second later).

In his autobiography, My Last Sigh (1983), Buñuel explains (pp. 46–47) the decision to use two actresses to play Conchita:

In 1977, in Madrid, when I was in despair after a tempestuous argument with an actress who'd brought the shooting of That Obscure Object of Desire to a halt, the producer, Serge Silberman, decided to abandon the film altogether. The considerable financial loss was depressing us both until one evening, when we were drowning our sorrows in a bar, I suddenly had the idea (after two dry martinis) of using two actresses in the same role, a tactic that had never been tried before. Although I made the suggestion as a joke, Silberman loved it, and the film was saved.

The book does not identify the actress who had caused the "tempestuous argument," though Buñuel makes it clear (p. 250) that she was neither Carole Bouquet nor Angela Molina.

In Luis Buñuel: The Complete Films (2005), editors Bill Krohn and Paul Duncan identify the actress as Maria Schneider, writing (pp. 177–78) the following in regard to the idea of using two actresses to play Conchita:

... Buñuel found himself proposing it to Silberman when it became clear after three days of shooting that Maria Schneider was indeed not going to be able to play the part. Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina stepped in ...

Responses

The film was not financially successful, but it became a critical favorite, garnering Best Foreign Language Film nominations at both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards (where it was also nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium)^[3] but failing to win at either. The critics associations were slightly more generous, with the National Board of Review, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association both giving it the Best Foreign Language Film awards in 1977. Luis Buñuel won Best Director at the National Board of Review and National Society of Film Critics awards. He was also nominated at the French César Awards.

Many contemporary critics have declared the film a masterpiece; the film holds a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 9/10 among 26 critics.^[4] In the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound poll, three critics and two directors ranked it one of the 10 greatest films ever made.^[5]

See also

• List of submissions to the 50th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Spanish submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Sources

• That Obscure Object of Desire, DVD, Criterion Collection; Jean-Claude Carrière Interview (2000)

References

• Warren, Jeff (2007). The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness, Random House, p. 137. ISBN 978-1-4000-6484-7

External links

• That Obscure Object of Desire at the Internet Movie Database
• That Obscure Object of Desire at AllMovie
• Criterion Collection essay by William Rothman
• That Obscure Object of Desire at Rotten Tomatoes