'That Obscure Object of Desire' is Luis Buñuel's final film, and one of his best. Even at seventy-seven years old, Buñuel continued to tear-up the rulebook of cinema convention, opting instead for his own subversive, challenging and confrontational style of rebellious surrealism, in which he made all the rules.In 'Object', Fernando Rey plays a wealthy older man lusting after the much younger fiery Spanish beauty, Conchita. Buñuel's dark social satire always boasts a viciously hilarious joke: this time the joke is the concept of using two different actresses to play the same role but never acknowledging it, and switching them around arbitrarily, forming a dizzying mood. That Fernando Rey's character 'Mathieu' never notices his woman's changing physiognomy is the grand gag: Mathieu is so vain and self-obsessed in a privileged bourgeois manner, that he is in love with the idea of having a much younger, beautiful woman on his arm -- what she specifically looks like or who she is isn't especially important.Conchita accepts Mathieu's financial gifts but never sleeps with him -- even going to such extreme lengths as to wear a leather chastity belt in bed with him -- much to Rey's initial disappointment and, eventually, anger. After a large argument concluding with Mathieu throwing Conchita out of his house, the couple are eventually reunited by chance in Seville, much to their surprise and joy; but even then they are separated by symbolic iron bars -- the universe continues to hold them apart, even at their happiest moments (or is it Conchita that consciously holds them apart?). Despite Mathieu's stuffy vanity typical of the bourgeoisie when dealing with the poor, it's hard not to feel some sympathy for the naive older man being taken for a ride by the twin-headed manipulative commoner Conchita.Sexual anxiety and the eternal futility of lust have been a staple of Buñuel's film-making ever since his first feature, the legendary 'Un Chien Andalou'; indeed, Surrealism and the queasy weirdness of sex and sexuality have always gone hand-in-hand since the former's inception. The anxiety and fear of terrorism in this film is a metaphor for the sexual anxiety and psychosexual uncertainty of the characters. This theme of terrorism-anxiety makes the film extremely current and modern in 2017.The film's final joke arrives in its closing scene: the couple's long-awaited orgasmic consummation finally arrives in the form of a terrorist bomb explosion that kills both, while in the middle of one of their many arguments.

If I was forced to pick a favourite filmmaker, I would have to pick Luis Buñuel. He saw people for the deeply flawed things we are, yet really kind of loved us for our absurd refusal to accept our weaknesses. His last film stars Fernando Rey as an urbane, dignified gentleman who falls hopelessly in love with Conchita, a young woman he meets working as his maid and who he actively pursues and couples with on and off throughout the film. She returns his affection, but refuses to let him conjugate their relationship. She alternates between hot and cold, promising to sleep with him and then withdrawing at the last moment, viciously rebuking him and then begging him to come back. This sounds like she is the villain of the piece, but it's never that simple with Buñuel. Her repeated statement that she loves him wholeheartedly, but is refusing him only this one small part of her has a certain absurd plausibility to it. When Maria Schneider walked off the film, Buñuel replaced her with two actresses. Conchita is alternately played by Carole Bouquet ("For Your Eyes Only") and Ángela Molina ("Live Flesh"). It's tempting to seek a pattern in this bold bit of weirdness, but really there's no deeper meaning to this move. It's a last bit of absurdist genius from a true master.

I always knew I was not good with faces, but I didn't realize just how bad I was until I watched this movie. It was only after I finished watching the movie and read a review on it that I found out that Conchita was played by two different actresses in regularly alternating scenes. Once I read that, I could immediately remember the difference, though I had not noticed it at the time. In fact, there was even a scene in which a third woman, who happened to be a brunette, made an appearance, and I thought she was Conchita too. Apparently the purpose was to have one actress play Conchita when she wants to have sex and the other actress when she does not.Anyway, we see some terrorism. Then, Mathieu, a middle-aged man, tries to seduce Conchita, his maid, on her first day on the job, which is creepy (today we would call it sexual harassment). She quits as a result, but he keeps pursuing her (today we would call it stalking).And then we see some more terrorism. Our disgust for him as a lecher soon turns to pity, because she keeps egging him on, promising, enticing, getting naked, rubbing her body on him, but he must not have sex with her, because she is virgin and she is saving herself for him and that ought to be enough for him and besides, what kind of girl does he think she is anyway?More terrorism. The movie proves there is no fool like an old fool, because he buys her a house to win her love, but she locks him out and has sex with her lover while he watches from outside.You guessed it, some more terrorism. He finally gets fed up and says he knows God will never forgive her. But then he forgives her, and they get back together. But wait! They start arguing again. Suddenly a bomb goes off in the marketplace blowing them to bits.Thank goodness for terrorism.

There is no number 0 for a review Not "surreal" Not believable, except for the brain dead Bunuel's worst, less than a sexless attack on humanity Did the actors demand more money after seeing the first cut? Do petit-bourgeois goats have "desire"? Yes.Do goats and lobotomized cows pay attention to Christian trinkets? Yes.Does the director? Sans doute...this is more like toothless snakes on a train.Occasional bombs going off have all the excitement of a stitched corset.The cognac glasses look like thimbles; they're a perfect fit for this film.Was Bunuel compulsively embarrassed by others? Yes.