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The Luis Bunuel classic - his final film - gets its first high-def presentation....
Lionsgate / 103 Minutes / 1977 / Unrated / Street Date: January 29, 2013
For film viewers with extensive capacities for complexity, the work of Luis Bunuel - especially films from the last third of his career - are singularly rewarding. Films like The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and Belle de jour are magnificent achievements in their own regard, but hindsight has offered them an even grander advent: they're better the fourth or fifth time around than they were on first viewing.
Such is the case with the magnificent funhouse eroticism of That Obscure Object of Desire, which makes its Region 1 Blu-ray debut this month. Those looking for a clear-cut sexy drama will be off-put from the get-go, but this final film of Bunuel's truly holds up with his most legendary achievements: it's a weirdly evocative meditation of love, lust, power, and the chamelonic tendencies of the human spirit.
Its most infamous conceit is that Bunuel hired two different actresses (Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina) to play the part of the movie's love interest - the obscure object our protagonist Mathieu (Fernando Rey) has his eyes on. Aboil with cultural examination as well as a surreal presentation of the slipperiness of love, That Obscure Object of Desire doesn't add up to much in a simple synopsis, but as a film within a film within a film, it's a knockout. And it gets better every time....