Rating: 
Summary: You have to see it to believe it
Review: The final film of Luis Brunel has an older rich French guy trying to buy his way into the heart of a young Spanish babe. It helps that she is somewhat destitute with no father and she needs to support her mother. But it doesn't play out as simply as it should.The movie begins as Frenchie's train is pulling out of the station and the babe is running after him. He dumps water on her. When he gets to his seat the other passengers are intrigued as to why he would do that. The movie is his explanation of what happened. The gist of the piece is that the girl won't give it up to Frenchie. She?ll suggest it, but still no hanky panky. She is nothing but excuses and we're not really sure what the real reason is. Sometimes she is afraid and promises him something special in the near future, other times she is mocking him as an old man. It goes through a period of him writing her off and then chasing her again. Maybe she is afraid that if she relents he will be through with her. Maybe she is worried that he doesn't love her. Maybe she is just stringing him along to get everything she can. Her behavior changes so much during the film that the train passengers feel really bad for Frenchie. We in the audience are sure she is just playing him for a fool. She even says so near the end of the film. But it's not as easy as this. Maybe she is just insecure. Just when you think the ending explains everything, it leaves you with more questions.
Rating:
Summary: A study of a man's yearning for a woman
Review: The story is told by Mathieu (played by the excellent Fernando Rey) to a group of strange people in a train carriage compartment. He is a wealthy man who meets a beautiful young woman named Conchita. They begin to see each other often, and Mathieu's desire for her grows stronger. Conchita is poor and lives with her mother in a small flat. Mathieu gives them a lot of money, but mistakenly tries to buy Conchita away from her mother. Conchita is played by two beautiful actresses, but strange as it may seem, this doesn't effect the film negatively. Sometimes when one version of Conchita walks through a door, the other figure enters the next room. But this style is unique and does work. Conchita teases Mathieu throughout the film, and comes across as a manipulative vixen. There is also a group of terrorists bombing buildings and cars throughout the film. A strange sack is carried around and seen several times too. These are the mysterious things Buñuel likes to add to his films. You get the feeling too that Buñuel knew this was going to be his last film with the ending, which is perfectly abrupt.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, wonderfully made movie
Review: This is a movie whose texture is so rich and whose possible interpretations are so various that you can watch it time and time again. It is extremely funny, but often in a kind of painful way. You sympathize with poor Matthieu, led such a merry dance by the girl he's obsessed with, but you also know he's vain and rather foolish. Surely Bunuel's greatest movie. Anyone got any ideas on what the pig in a sack symbolizes?
Rating:
Summary: Funny and surreal
Review: This is one of my favorite movies of the '70s. It is sometimes funny at the level of slapstick. At other times, Bunuel seems to take pleasure in making the viewer as uncomfortable as the protagonist, Matthieu. Even at the end of his career, Bunuel had a talent for playing with our expectations and surprising us.
Rating:
Summary: "Help" ~ I'm hooked!
Review: This movie is addicting. I must have seen this movie a hundred times, each time wondering how can someone be so brilliant to create a such a first rate film. Carol Bouquet and Rey Fernando gave a stunning performance that was so eerily convincing amidst the dream-like quality of the setting. The technique's superb and the scenes/images from the movie leave me fuzzy and in dazed for a day or two each time I watch it. My favorite movie ever!
Rating: 
Summary: Luis Buñuel's legacy goes out with a bang
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
"That Obscure Object of Desire" Luis Buñuel's final movie, released in France under the title "Cet Obscur Objet du Désir" has a wonderful plot although it has some risque scenes in it giving it an R rating in the US.
The movie is based on the book "Le Femme et la Pantin" written in 1898 by Pierre Louÿs.
The film follows a widower named Matthieu who falls in love with a young Spanish woman named Conchita (who is played by two actresses) The film is told in retrospective and flashbacks as Matthieu describes his relationship with Conchita to fellow passengers on a train. The relationship has many ups and downs with betrayal and vindication.
The movie has scenes that will offend some viewers and is not appropriate for children.
The special features on the DVD include a theatrical trailer, an optional English language soundtrack, an interview with Jean-Claude Carrièe, who wrote the screenplay, and has scenes from a 1929 film also based on the novel. (Which has the same title as the novel.) In addition to this, the liner notes include an interview with director Luis Buñuel.
Rating: 
Summary: Confusing, Message is Lost
Review: This whole film is "Obscure". I bought this based on high marks given by others. I was looking for a romantic film to watch with my wife, instead I got a twisted look inside the minds of sex/relationship addicts. I was sorely disappointed after watching this bizarre film. I kept hoping that there would be some resolution at the end. Even having the whole thing be a 'dream sequence' would have been better than what it was. I was left with questions like - What the heck was all that about? Why did he keep changing actresses, what's the deal with the sack, the terrorists...I can only guess about the ending.
This film is like a lot of modern art, you can read into the meaning of things and make this whatever you want it to be. I would have liked the director to have given a more solid message. As far as I know there was none. I don't want to have to research a film's meaning the next morning... Purchasing this film left me feeling guilty and cheated. I actually apologized for showing it, and am donating my copy to the local library. Warning -- Rent this one first.
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