"The Phantom of Freedom" is the least "logical" of Buñuel's films. Perhaps as the film says, his old man is tired of "symmetry", a series of stories with no beginning and no end. Linked together loosely, to ask, is "freedom" really what you want? Of course, it would be interesting to see it as "all kinds of weird phenomena about freedom". Of course, you can only interpret it on the surface. This is because the old man made his own experience grotesque and collaged his own dreams, or it was the orthodox in his life. He vented his deviance through movies, and made the taboos, absurdity, and filth in society. All come to a big reveal, and there is not much deep meaning and mystery. But maybe it is precisely because his films are like dreams, and as dreams, they have a sense of mystery and strangeness, which stimulates people's desire to interpret, want to straighten out, and want to understand, and his films blur the real experience of people. , the boundaries between what you want to happen and events that are distorted by various repressions (this is not surreal at all, it is very realistic), true and false, false and true, and some private eccentricities can be derived into social larger The scope of the strange disease, so there are endless possibilities, even if this is not necessarily the director's intention.
On the whole, the stories in it are very unpredictable, but it is not just the old routines that are full of unbearable surfaces. The guide is using these stories to point out that people's freedom is unconsciously limited, and some aspects. The excessive freedom of the people makes the reality more and more absurd, which makes people think, can freedom really be obtained by breaking all the traditional constraints? Which freedoms should be restricted? What kind of freedom do you want? Where is the enemy of freedom, the law? custom? Morality? Or from our hearts? How will you fight for the freedom you want?
The first story, based on Francisco Goya's painting "The Third of May 1808", is an execution scene where Napoleon's troops execute Spanish rebels. According to history, when Napoleon invaded Spain, saying it was "liberation", he replaced the Spanish king with his own. The so-called "freedom" is to satisfy his "ambition". For the Spaniards, his "freedom" is a violation of sovereignty. Of course, Napoleon did not succeed. The words shouted by the executed people haunt the whole film like a phantom, some translated as "Freedom to Die", and some translated as "The Shackles Are Forever", it seems that the latter is more able to dominate the whole film. In contrast to reality, because of the different definitions of freedom, one person's freedom is likely to be a violation of another person's freedom, and it is not uncommon to plunder in the name of "for freedom".
The second story is based on Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer's story "The Kiss", which seems to have a tragic ending. In the original work, the general still respected the statue and the cemetery, but he couldn't help the beauty of the statue. Taking advantage of the wine, he asked for a kiss, but the result was not only a beating by the statue of the husband next to him, but also from the eyes and nose. , The blood spurted out of the mouth, and then was critically hit. Under this kind of punishment, it is absolutely impossible to "blaspheme" the deceased in order to retaliate by digging a grave and opening a coffin. And the general in the film is obviously too "presumptuous" and "dissolute". In addition to the jokes, it also reflects how "boundless" and "indecent" the freedom of modern people is.
In the third story, everyone thought that the uncle who approached the two girls in the park was a pedophile and showed them indecent photos. As a result, after returning home, the girl handed it over to her parents, and it turned out to be pictures of ancient buildings. However, her parents described them with words such as "disgusting", "shameful" and "obscene" while looking at them, as well as being sexually aroused, as if in Look at pornographic photos. And the topic of communication between the parents and the girl is more about "spiders". The traditional immortality and magnificence were suddenly exchanged with the unclean and ugly, and the latter took their place and became people's preference. In contrast to reality, I do have the same feeling. When all the classical beauty is overturned, all kinds of "bad tastes" abound, and in the name of diversification, many "unpopular" are also born. After all, it is difficult for people to jump out of "following the flow", the mainstream of the past will become the last flow, and vice versa, but is this really freedom, is there some enduring, eternal, or is it just a This kind of gesture, anti-tradition and anti-tradition, in order to show their "new trend". And this kind of abandonment of the past, will people inexplicably lose their foundation, appear to be floating, absent-minded, soulless, and unable to sleep if they lose something?
The fourth story takes place in a hotel, and what happens between travelers, the more interesting one is the "eyes". Apparently prayer and meditation alone cannot make one relax and "save", and after the monk's routine prayer for the nurse's father, the poker game, smoking and drinking seems to be more relaxing, and here When they closed the door of the "icon", it seemed that no one could see it and could escape God's "surveillance". Later, they even huddled with female believers, and vaguely talked about other female believers. . And another pair of nephews who came to have an affair, came here so that other relatives "can't see". Correspondingly, the hat dealer and his female partner wanted to stage a masochistic drama under the "all eyes", and what he was talking about was not how cool this TMD was, but he felt that he was inferior to a pig and a dog. , that he is sinful, that he is rotten, and should be beaten. Among those onlookers, some were doing immoral and unethical things, and some were just a little abnormal, and I wondered if they were touched. It seems not surprising that hat dealers want to keep monks the most. After all, this set of rhetoric that people are guilty, punishable, and suffer has once made people "keep their own feet" and "one-heartedly good", and listening to people's repentance seems to be their own job. But now they are running away. On the other hand, just when the nephew looked at him and felt "ashamed", the aunt who was still struggling at first agreed, "As long as he likes it, he is willing to do anything for him." Can't help but sigh, "freedom" is sometimes really stupid! Think about self-criticism or external definition, of course it can't be too harsh, but once people lose the "eyes" to examine themselves, it's really the magic of TMD! The key is that in the eyes of today's people, many of the bridges have already been "comed out", which makes people want to shout "Long live freedom". The last pair of fake fox eyes stared at all this, wondering if they wanted to explain that what you did, someone would know, and you would eventually pay for it.
The chat between monks and nurses is also very absurd, saying that sacred standards are changing, today does not know tomorrow, and what was a saint in the past may not be today. The examples given are easy to miss without careful study, and it is difficult to understand accurately due to translation reasons. It seems that Thérèse of Lisieux (Derain of Lisieux) is a model of saints, but the film says that she is unholy due to her family's genetic disease; while another Savonarola (Savonarola) pursues strict dogma, against pleasure ( Anti-gambling, drinking and even playing chess), also opposed to doing business, made homosexuality a capital offense, and burned non-religious books, works of art, and luxury goods. was "canonized". Of course these are some sort of perversions to satirize the world, and how much people love to "swing around".
The "masochism" or "Oedipus" in this paragraph will be more interesting if it is extended. Coincidentally, in Fromm's book "Escape from Freedom", it is pointed out that one of the most obvious groups of masochistic psychology is the lower middle class, that is, small business owners, who happen to be the hat dealers who perform "masochistic" in the film. Or the identity of the nurse's father - the small farmer with "heart disease". After breaking free from the shackles of tradition (church, aristocracy), everyone's social role or class is to be determined, but this means engaging in fierce competition, and everyone around you becomes your "opponent", which is both liberating and anxious one of the sources. The definition of success has been limited to having more wealth, greater prestige, and human relationships have become increasingly instrumental. In this change of times, small business owners are most threatened by (monopolists), they cannot indulge themselves like the upper class, their status is precarious, and they cannot make the lower class "willingly" obey them, and they will be uselessly consumed in In the scramble with others, the hidden hostility, jealousy, and resentment may appear in the form of "hypocrisy". Trapped in this class, they have a kind of helplessness and incompetence that "can't get up and down". For this reason, they are more likely to fall into the drama of conquering the "weak" by surrendering to the "strong". Sadism sometimes escalates to persecution, war, and the reason why onlookers are just onlookers is because they gain a certain "vent of anger" (due to economic and cultural poverty) and a certain "superiority".
Oedipus can also be a manifestation of being unable to complete individualization, escaping a sense of powerlessness, weakness, and escaping responsibility. The state of integration is very delicate. It can have absolute security, no conflict, and you don’t have to find your own direction and make choices. It’s like being in the Garden of Eden, but it’s not free, you can’t develop, you can’t Wholeness, inability to gain a sense of power, can make one feel "enslaved". Trapped in it is a never-ending tug-of-war between love and kill. What you want is not obtained through your own "effort", but through the "love" of others or through your own "shame", and when others fail to meet your expectations, there will be resentment. It is true that rebellion is to challenge secular conventions to gain independence and freedom, but when its object becomes the most basic human relations, it still makes people feel a little "creepy". The most "normal" part of the whole section seems to be the flamenco dancer. She is practicing with the guitarist. Maybe she is the representative of truly realizing her potential and living her true self, without indulging in integration or masochism. And they were "blocked out" by others.
The fifth story, the joy of the police station before the professor came, makes people feel "it's good to be free". Afterwards, when the blackboard exposed the shortcomings of the boss (an affair and homosexuality), he stuck the professor with the villain, didn't listen to the class well, and "truly skipped the class" by entering and leaving the class through tolerance, which was exactly in response to the professor's reprimand "such an adult, still like child". No one wants to listen to the relativity of serious morals and customs, but a piece of daily gossip arouses the police officer's interest. The tolerances run are nothing more than a pipe burst, a traffic accident, and the "workers sounding the alarm" (worker movement?) in the newspapers are ignored, showing a certain "out of focus" in modern people. Clear priorities. The same is true for the conversation between the professor and his friends. When talking about opera, the focus is on the singer who is "fat". He returned from a trip because he couldn't stand the indecent taste of "food". The discussion on environmental protection also involved "feces and urine". It was only when people "empathized" with the seriousness of the problem that they couldn't help but spit. The upside-down of the restaurant and toilet is also speechless and amazing. Eating is more "in the hall" than La, but it has become a toilet-like shame and disliked by others. The restaurant is used to "shit", which is also appropriate, at least their conversation does have a "shit smell". And it is difficult to make a name for a meal with many people. It is not as good as a "lonely" gourmet, who can have more details on the food. Although no one knows how to eat and pull, but to be able to "eat" to produce some tricks and "pull" to produce some top-quality ones, after all, it depends on chance. Perhaps what this passage wants to say is that although changes in morality and customs may be unacceptable or even panic at first, sometimes people "get used to it" at a speed comparable to the speed of light.
The sixth story, first of all, the doctor turned a blind eye and never told the patient to stop smoking. When the patient was in the advanced stage of cancer, he didn't want to get into the serious issue. It can be seen that giving freedom can also cause harm. After the patient learned of his condition, he also made a blind copy of the drama. Even though the child was in front of him, he insisted that the child was lost and he had to judge with the school. Maybe it's the patient's wish. It seems that they don't have to face the tragic reality that their life is not going to be long when they are distracted and busy with some things. Of course, between their husband and wife, there may be conflicts themselves, and it is also a possibility to divert attention by "finding children". Yes, when people have the freedom to procrastinate again and again (to leave their troubles to tomorrow), and the freedom to turn a blind eye (and seem not to be there), then don't blame some problems from small to big.
The seventh story is no stranger to us. A "poet" who keeps saying that he should not torture animals, but shoots several people one after another. After being sentenced to death, he can't see the "spirit" of others. The jurors in the court handed him a cigarette and lit a cigarette, shook hands with him, and went out. Everyone saluted him, and some people came up to ask for autographs. If you don't tell me, this is the prisoner's appearance in court after the trial, and I thought it was the end of the "star" concert. It seems that "kill at will" has become a "freedom" that should be respected. Maybe the "poet" is here to experience life and find inspiration, which is worth "advocating"!
The eighth story is a story of a substitute, and if you look closely, the ending really maximizes the horror of freedom, even better than the seventh. I thought the sheriff was busy with some "big business", but I didn't expect to go to the bar to play mahjong. When I saw the girl who looked like my sister, I remembered that today was my sister's death anniversary. Just thinking about using the girl as a "substitute" for her sister, but the sister called from the underworld, as if to warn, don't think about finding a replacement, she can be forgotten, the mystery of her death is inseparable from him (Maybe the sheriff did something wrong, so he was afraid that someone would open the museum for an autopsy and reveal the truth, which is also unknown). And it is precisely because he is the sheriff that he feels that he has the right (there are indeed different degrees of freedom in different classes), and he can be free from any restrictions, even if it is something like prying the coffin, and the other party is his sister, he can treat her no matter what. . He was arrested, but quickly got out (Fufa was just taking a form? What happened, transferred to the next one?), the person who replaced him, had a common topic with him, shared common experience (referring to some powers, bureaucrats, etc.) doctrine passed down from generation to generation?), discussing the experience of dealing with the "animals" in the zoo.
If the animals in the zoo are only regarded as animals, then you will feel that the current police are really looking for trouble, making a big fuss, not doing business, and taking care of the zoo. But with the same noise and gunfire as at the beginning, there is a hint of panic. What if the new "rebels" were treated like animals? What about treating the new "uncivilized people" like animals? Then their dialogue seems to have a new meaning. What cages should be closed to keep other people away. Unfortunately, it is just bad luck that one died. Our people are more precious than them, and they all have a tone of suppressing dissidents and Nazism. . At this time, they were as if nothing had happened, their jokes, no guns, no killings, but it was more frightening than the bloody execution at the beginning. When everything that needs to be cautious, tormented, and forbidden becomes a child's play, probably we also want to shout the phrase "freedom to die" and "shackles forever"!
Want to not be as confused as an ostrich (this ostrich face is perfect for an emoji, with the line "Do you have a lot of question marks, kid?")? Facing the truth is one way, whether it is one's own, or the history, society, or the world, it is another way to truthfully express your thoughts and emotions, less pretense and less repression. The film shows more of the irrational side of people. Of course, the proposition of freedom is far more complicated than in the film. The book "Escape from Freedom" covers more, such as today's society, the social structural reasons for people's escape from freedom, why individualization is difficult and how to achieve it (note the distinction between individualization and self-centeredness, the former is autonomy, self-reliance, equality, The latter is pseudo-individualism), how much "new authority" can make people "enslaved" and "manipulated" without realizing it, and how many people's feelings and thoughts are instilled by others without independent thinking and understanding. scrutiny, etc. These are probably left for future filmmakers to explore.
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