In 1976, the world's film art master Luis Buñuel was 77 years old, but his creative passion was still intact. He filmed "The Obscure Purpose of Desire", which was a perfect end to his creative career. .
In 1939 Franco began to implement the fascist dictatorship in Spain, Buñuel was forced to leave the country, and in 1949 he became a Mexican citizen. However, Buñuel has always been attached to the motherland that nurtured him, and will never forget his childhood and college experiences. With deep affection for his homeland, relatives and friends, he completed his posthumous work in Spain.
"The Obscure Purpose of Desire" is adapted from the novel "Woman and the Puppet" by Pierre Louvay, a famous work that has been adapted to the screen four times. Buñuel captured the essence of the novel and deepened the theme. He was inspired by a sentence of the hero in the novel, and finished the film titled "The Obscure Purpose of Desire".
This film is another exploration and analysis of Bunuel's mentality, especially the things that are difficult to perceive deep in people's hearts, and has a certain surrealism. In his memoir, My Last Sigh, Buñuel wrote: "In any case, in my life, I spent time in the company of the exciting and disorganized surrealist group—more than three years. Time - something has been preserved. The first thing left for me is the free exploration of the hearts of people who are acknowledged and longed for, which is irrational, obscure, everything stems from our impulses, and my heart is deep I have never turned my back on it all.” In fact, as he himself said, since Bunuel made his first film, “An Andalusian Dog” in 1928, his work has been linked with Surrealism Understand the incomprehensible relationship. From the 32 films he made during his long creative years, we can see the influence of Surrealism on him. But this influence is not superficial, but is placed at the core of his work. Instead of consecrating surrealism, Buñuel absorbed it as a nourishment to nourish himself. Therefore, no matter in the heyday or decline of surrealism, whether his works express realistic stories or explore human desires, he can effectively use surrealist creative methods to enrich his films. of expressiveness.
The storyline of "The Obscure Purpose of Desire" is basically complete, and the film describes Madeo's pursuit of Conchita and the twists and turns it causes. Buñuel uses this uncomplicated story to show the complex and ever-changing inner world of man. He revealed the human nature through Madeo's strong possessiveness towards Conchita and the changeable character of Conchita.
The hero of the film, Madeo, is rich and powerful, and is a member of the upper class. He is well-dressed and elegant in manner, and can be regarded as a representative of the bourgeoisie. When Madeo saw Conchita for the first time at home, he was immediately moved by her beauty and had the desire to possess Conchita (here, Buñuel used the most primitive desire of man—sexual desire to represent man various desires). He carefully arranged to seduce Conchita, trying to get Conchita in a gentle atmosphere.
After Madeo failed, he wanted to use money to achieve his goals (he regarded money as omnipotent, and he took advantage of the greed of Conchita's mother to send money and things to Conchita's house). But money also failed to get Madeo to do so. Later, Madeo finally brought Conchita to his villa. After he sleeps with Conchita, he can't undo her leggings (Conchita's inescapable leggings are obviously symbolic). In the face of Conchita who was at his fingertips, Madeo couldn't satisfy his desires, and his desire was frustrated again, making him cry.
Madeo was furious with Conchita, and he borrowed the power of his cousin to get the police to expel the Conchita mother and daughter from France. Since Madeo could not forget Conchita, driven by desire, he came to Seville, Spain to find Conchita and bought her a house. While Madeo thought he could get Conchita without fail, he was mocked by Conchita. Conchita had sex in front of his face, causing a brutal blow to his feelings and dignity. He threw away his gentle coat and beat Conchita severely.
Buñuel's layer-by-layer perspective on Madeo's possessiveness (including the germination of desire, the pursuit of desire, and the constant failure of desire) achieves the effect of analyzing the inner world of the characters from the shallower to the deeper.
In this film, Buñuel also made a detailed description of Conchita's changeable character, revealing the complex mentality of people from another aspect. Conchita is an elusive girl, smart, beautiful, but cunning and sometimes even cheeky. Conchita, whose family is poor, is not willing to be Madeo's plaything, but also intends to maintain a detached relationship with him. She plays with Madeo's desires, accepts his money, but refuses to commit herself to him. In order to accurately represent Conchita, Buñuel did a novel treatment of the character. He used two actresses to play Conchita, the French actor Carol Bouquet (pure, beautiful) and the Spanish actress Angela Molina (beautiful, sexy), two The actress represents both sides of Conchita's character. Carroll's Conchita represents her pure side, while Angela's Conchita represents her cunning side. The two actors alternate on screen, with no clear dividing line between the two. Bunuel used the two actors to co-star in one character, fully showing people's inner world of good and evil, beauty and ugliness, and the elusive multi-faceted inner world. He explained to producer Silberman: "You know my wife, I've lived with her for 40 years, but sometimes I feel like she's another person. A woman is not always a woman. There are many faces." Through the portrayal of the male and female protagonists, Bunuel completed a multi-angle, all-round and in-depth analysis of people, and achieved his goal of revealing the nature of people.
In addition, Buñuel also subtly expresses his views on the crisis of the whole world through the film. Buñuel has experienced vicissitudes of life, and he has his own unique views on various problems that endanger human existence in the world, such as population explosion, war, nuclear tests, etc. He is worried that human beings have destroyed their own living environment in the process of development. In "The Obscure Purpose of Desire", in addition to the direct scenes of car explosions, robbery, bomb explosions, etc., newspapers and radio broadcasts are also used to involve plane crashes and the spread of viruses. Buñuel arranged the billowing smoke of the bomb explosion at the end of the film, on the one hand to show that the failure of Madeo's desire is closely related to the turbulent environment outside, and on the other hand, it also expresses Buñuel's appreciation for today's Views of the world - the world has become chaotic, and it is difficult for human beings to find a pure land to live in.
In terms of narrative structure, the film adopts the narrative techniques of reality, flashbacks, and repeated intersections. Based on Madeo's narrative in the train box, it connects the events that happened in Paris-Switzerland-Seville. This not only increases the fusion point of communication with the audience, but also maintains the integrity of the story. This "travel" narrative method is one of the methods Buñuel likes to use.
The surreal colors are also reflected in the film. For example, a broken sack appears several times in the film. Madeo and Conchita did not forget to take the sack when they traveled to take pictures, and this sack has nothing to do with the plot. Also, in the cafe, a fly fell into Madeo's wine glass, and the waiter found it and said, "A fly! I've been chasing it for days! That's good, it fell into your glass! I'll give you a glass of wine instead." Not only are these scenes irrelevant to the plot of the film, they also have no specific meaning. Buñuel often expresses his own dreams (including those told to him by others), his imagination and the hazy thoughts in his subconscious in the film, which becomes an integral part of his creation.
There is such a scene at the end of the film: when Madeo passes a shop, he sees through the glass window a woman takes out an old blood-stained clothes from a broken sack, and the woman carefully sews the torn clothes. . Madeo watched intently, ignoring Conchita beside him, and was extremely excited. This image of a woman mending clothes is reminiscent of a painting by the Dutch genre painter Ferme. The scene of this painting appeared in Bunuel's first film "An Andalusian Dog", and at the end of his last film, Ferme's painting was reproduced. It can be said that Bunuel Take this to bid farewell to the film industry he has worked so hard for for many years. Why does this woman sew? What is its inner meaning? To mend the razor-cut eye in "An Andalusian Dog"? Or to mend the torn feelings? This may become an eternal mystery. Buñuel himself once said: "The last scene in The Obscure Purpose of Desire (the last scene I shot before the explosion) got me so excited, I can't tell why, maybe forever. It's mysterious."
Buñuel passed away on July 29, 1983, and the humor, irony and unique style of his works have left an indelible impression on people.
View more about That Obscure Object of Desire reviews
