The Phantom of Liberty

In Luis Buñuel’s penultimate and favorite of his films, characters wander from one exquisitely surreal and provocative vignette to another—the most famous among them being a dinner party scene where guests sit on toilets instead of chairs and excuse themselves to secluded quarters where they can eat in private. Along the way, Buñuel’s mordant late masterpiece skewers bourgeois mores and social conventions with caustic elegance. According to Buñuel, the phrase “phantom of liberty” came to him initially to describe the predicament of the Spaniards facing Napoleonic “liberation” in the opening scene of the film and also as a play on Marx’s phrase “the specter of Communism,” but gradually he felt the idea referred equally to the illusory freedom of the artists.

Bing Theater | FAQs

Included with admission to The Devil, Probably. $5 admission for this film only. Call 323 857-6010 or purchase online.