The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel, 1972)

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel, 1972)

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel, 1972)

“I don’t belong to anyone,” Conchita declares. “I belong to myself.” She would happily give herself to Mathieu, she tells him. But like Jean Arthur in Howard Hawks’ Only Angels Have Wings, Conchita is hard to get––Mathieu has to ask her. That is, he has to ask her in a way that respects her freedom to say no. Mathieu, who is privileged—but also constrained––by his wealth and by the power a patriarchal society accords to men, is unwilling or unable to treat Conchita as an equal. Instead, he repeatedly tries to obtain sexual favors from her by (literally or figuratively) buying them. Every time he treats her as an object, she walks out on him. To have sex with her, she insists, he has to win her. To win her, he has to change his outmoded way of thinking. But changing our ways of thinking, Buñuel reminds us, is what human beings find the most difficult thing in the world to do. Mathieu, failing to change, perversely keeps doing the one thing that guarantees that Conchita––whether out of perversion or principle––will refuse to satisfy him.

That Obscure Object of Desire By William Rothman

Films in 2013—#004 That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Bunuel, 1977)

That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Bunuel, 1977)

celluloidshadows:

Spanish movie poster for Luis Buñuel’s “The Exterminating Angel”

(via kablamm)

Simon of the Desert (Luis Bunuel, 1965)

get three behind me satan

briyanshu:

Luis Bunuel, 1929.

(via alylovesfilms)

anneyhall:

Luis Buñuel, 1930.

Photo by Salvador Dalí

Mexican poster for The Exterminating Angel

Un Chien Andalou (1929)