That Obscure Object Of Desire

''That Obscure Object of Desire'' (; ) is a 1977 comedy drama film directed by Luis Buñuel, based on the 1898 novel '' The Woman and the Puppet'' by Pierre Louÿs. It was Buñuel's final directorial effort before his death in July 1983. Set in Spain and France against the backdrop of a terrorist insurgency, the film conveys the story told through a series of flashbacks by an aging Frenchman, Mathieu (played by Fernando Rey), who recounts falling in love with a beautiful young Spanish woman, Conchita (played interchangeably by two actresses, Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina), who repeatedly frustrates his romantic and sexual desires. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 50th Academy Awards.

In recent years, the film has been highly acclaimed by critics.

Plot

A dysfunctional and sometimes violent romance unfolds between Mathieu (Fernando Rey), a middle-aged, wealthy Frenchman, and Conchita, a young, impoverished, and beautiful flamenco dancer from Seville, portrayed by Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina. The two actresses appear unpredictably in separate scenes, differing not only physically but also temperamentally.

Most of the film is a flashback recalled by Mathieu. It opens with Mathieu travelling by train from Seville to Paris, attempting to distance himself from his young girlfriend Conchita. As Mathieu's train prepares to depart, he discovers a bruised and bandaged Conchita pursuing him. Pouring a bucket of water over her head from the train, he believes this will deter her, but she sneaks aboard.

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

Conchita, who claims to be 18 but appears older, has vowed to remain a virgin until marriage. She tantalizes Mathieu with sexual promises but never allows him to satisfy his desires. At one point, she goes to bed with him wearing a tightly laced canvas corset, which he cannot untie, rendering intercourse impossible. In another scene, he discovers her hiding a young man in her room. Conchita's antics cause the couple to break up and reunite repeatedly, frustrating and confusing Mathieu.

Eventually, Mathieu finds Conchita dancing nude for tourists in a Seville nightclub. Initially enraged, he later forgives her and buys her a house. In a climactic scene, after moving into the house, Conchita refuses to let Mathieu in at the gate, expressing her hatred for him and claiming that physical contact with him sickens her. She then appears to initiate sexual intercourse with a young man in plain view of Mathieu, although he walks away without witnessing the act. Later that night, he is held up at gunpoint as his car is hijacked.

Afterward, 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, causing her bandaged and bruised state seen earlier in the film.

As the fellow train passengers seem satisfied with this story, Conchita reappears from hiding and dumps a bucket of water on Mathieu. Despite this, the couple apparently reconcile once more as the train reaches its destination. Upon leaving the train, they walk arm in arm, enjoying the streets of Madrid.

Later, in a Paris mall, 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 killing them.

Casting

''That Obscure Object of Desire'' is most notable for its use of two actresses, Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina, in the single role of Conchita; the actresses switch roles in alternate scenes and sometimes even in the middle of scenes. In his autobiography, ''My Last Sigh'' (1983), Buñuel explains (pp. 46–47) the decision to use two actresses to play Conchita:

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:

Specifically regarding Buñuel's employment of two actresses to play a single character, most critics were charmed, as exemplified by ''New York Times'' film critic Vincent Canby's review:

Apart from ''That Obscure Object of Desire'', other films that employ two or more actors to perform a single character include Todd Solondz's '' Palindromes'', wherein eight different actors of different ages, races, and genders play a 13-year-old girl named Aviva during the course of the film; Terry Gilliam's ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'', where similarly a production issue—in this case the death of Heath Ledger during production—led to Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law stepping in to play his character's "imaginary world" scenes; and Canadian filmmaker B. P. Paquette's '' Perspective'', wherein each of the three lead actors continually rotate the three characters they play, not only within the same scene, but sometimes during the same dialogue exchange. In the 2007 film, ''I'm Not There'', six actors and actresses played real historical figures or artists (and some are wholly fictional characters) inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan's public personae.

Spanish actor Fernando Rey frequently worked with Buñuel in his later years. He plays Mathieu, but his voice is dubbed by the French actor Michel Piccoli.

Ángela Molina revealed Luis Buñuel needed to see her completely naked during the audition. "There were nude scenes, and I imagine he needed convincing that I was what he required for his film, or whatever. He had to see the way I looked. I was wearing the same dressing gown that appeared in the film. He put his glasses on. It was a long changing room, and he was at one end of it, and then he said, with an absolutely loving and affectionately paternal smile... let's see, I don't remember what exact word he used, but I knew I had to expose myself. So, I opened my dressing gown for a moment like a little girl, because that's what I was. I was very innocent at that time. And then he put his glasses on immediately and said: 'Cover yourself! Cover yourself!' All this as though they were uncovering Tutankhamun's mummy", Molina laughing recalled.

Reception

Critical response

''That Obscure Object of Desire'' was not financially successful, but it became a critical favorite. Many later critics have declared the film a masterpiece. The film holds a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 8.8/10 among 35 critics. The site's consensus reads: "''That Obscure Object of Desire'' is a frequently unsettling treatise on the quixotic nature of lust and love". Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 84 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "universal acclaim". In the British Film Institute's 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' poll, three critics and two directors ranked it one of the ten greatest films ever made.

Home media

The U.S. version of ''That Obscure Object of Desire'' was released on VHS by The International Collection in 1986.

On 15 November 2001, the film was released via DVD by The Criterion Collection and was subsequently re-released five days later on the same medium.

''That Obscure Object of Desire'' was released via DigiPack as a part of StudioCanal Collection by Studio Canal in France on 23 October 2012.

On 15 March 2017, Eagle Pictures released Italian version of ''That Obscure Object of Desire'' on Blu-ray disc.

The film was released via Blu-ray on 29 January 2013 in the United States as part of the StudioCanal Collection from Lionsgate Films.

In Germany, ''That Obscure Object of Desire'' was released on Blu-ray and DigiBook through Studio Canal on 23 October 2014 and on 20 September 2012, respectively.

In January 2021, the film was released as part of the Three-film Collection by The Criterion Collection with '' The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie'' and '' The Phantom of Liberty'' being the other two.

A DigiPack version of the film was announced by The Criterion Collection for the U.S. distribution, but the release date for it is not yet known.

Accolades

''That Obscure Object of Desire'' garnered Best Foreign Language Film nominations at both the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards (where it was also nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium) but failed 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.

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
* List of film characters played cooperatively by multiple actors at the same time

Sources

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

References

Bibliography

*

External links

*
''That Obscure Object of Desire''
–– an essay by William Rothman at The Criterion Collection
Review by Roger Ebert

{{DEFAULTSORT:That Obscure Object Of Desire
1977 black comedy films
1977 comedy-drama films
1977 multilingual films
1970s avant-garde and experimental films
1970s French films
1970s French-language films
1970s satirical films
1970s sex comedy films
1970s Spanish films
1970s Spanish-language films
Films about interclass romance
Films about sexual repression
Films based on The Woman and the Puppet
Films directed by Luis Buñuel
Films produced by Serge Silberman
Films set in Madrid
Films set in Paris
Films set in Seville
Films shot in Madrid
Films shot in Paris
Films shot in Switzerland
Films with screenplays by Jean-Claude Carrière
French avant-garde and experimental films
French black comedy films
French-language black comedy films
French multilingual films
French satirical films
French sex comedy-drama films
French-language Spanish films
Spanish avant-garde and experimental films
Spanish black comedy films
Spanish-language comedy-drama films
Spanish multilingual films
Spanish satirical films
Spanish sex comedy-drama films
Spanish-language French films