This excellent collection of satirical vignettes is my kind of movie - crazy, dark and comical, it goes any direction it wants and does not follow any rules. When we try to grasp for the meaning, it is like a ghost, a phantom that "leaves us with a wisp of vapor in our hands" and disappears - very much like the liberty, the freedom the humans try to find but instead could only see its phantom disappearing. The film follows many characters on its way shifting effortlessly and playfully from the central ones to the minor ones making minor ones the central and going back and forth from one time period to another. It opens in Toledo during the Napoleonic occupation then jumps to the modern day Paris. It could've gone anywhere and introduced me to any character - it still would've been enormously interesting because it was made by the master who had never lost his curiosity, his inquisitive mind, his memory that consisted of the strange and amazing images, his sense of humor, his childhood dreams, his fantasies, dark and shining and who was able to throw them all on the screen like no one ever was able or will be able to do. To understand Bunuel completely would be as impossible as to catch the Phantom of Liberty - he will be always one of the best and unsolved mysteries in the Art of Cinema.

This is a very self-selecting film. Those who love Luis Buñuel and adore his Surrealism will no doubt think this an an absolutely marvelous and absurd piece of art. Many of those who don't will probably be amused by some of the silliness, but could probably not be convinced it is either great art or something they'd like to see again. And I am also sure that a many of the run-of-the-mill film viewers would probably hate it. I just can't see most teens watching this type of film.

In many ways, this movie reminds me of the paintings of Dali, and that is certainly not a surprise considering that the director and Dali had worked together in the past and BOTH adored nonsensical work that both confused and enraged audiences. This film was a deliberate attempt at both--especially as far as being confusing. Many of the vignettes just seem very random and go nowhere, while others are pretty revolting and others are pretty funny--it's a very odd mix. I think the one I liked best was the very first vignette with the "dirty old man in the park" who gives little girls "bad pictures"--it's not as bad as it sounds and was actually pretty funny.

I can't say I necessarily hated the film, but I sure wouldn't want a steady diet of these films. It was certainly an unusual experience (much like eating haggis or hang gliding naked). If you liked this film, try seeing BUFFET FROID (another French film)--it is even more absurd and bizarre than this one.

One of Luis Bunuel's most free-form and purely Surrealist films, consisting of a series of only vaguely related episodes - most famously, the dinner party scene where people sit on lavatories round a dinner table on, occasionally retiring to a little room to eat.

Luis Bunuel said, "Chance governs all things; necessity, which is far from having the same purity, comes only later. If I have a soft spot for any one of my movies, it would be for The Phantom of Liberty, because it tries to work out just this theme." I know I am in the minority, but I do not quite see the appeal of Bunuel's later films. I love his early work, such as "Age d'Or" and "un Chien Andalou", but the later more political films... I do not necessary appreciate them. This one and its partner, "Discreet Charm", I just cannot identify with... maybe a second viewing?