The Phantom of Freedom is a late work by Buñuel, with the same surrealist style, the same cunning and satire. At the beginning of the film, the camera focuses on Goya's famous painting "Shooting the Insurgents on the Night of May 3, 1808", which is set against the backdrop of the growing and invincible Napoleonic army invading Spain, the humiliating surrender of the upper echelons of society and the people resisting, and the protesters in the painting wearing white shirts, beige outer pants, and the illuminated raised hands become the bright focus of the chiaroscuro contrast throughout the work. It is worth noting that although it may be disheveled, the insurgent's coat is not stained with any stains, and the pure externalization of the insurgent's heart to the presentation of the painting is also a manifestation that transcends reality and contrasts with brutality, blood, and darkness.
This contrast is always reflected in "The Phantom of Freedom", but the contrast in the film is more ironic and ironic, and even has a sense of nonsense. Couples who revel in the landscape pictures dream of different animals and postmen invading the bedroom at night; in the hotel, the monks pray for the father of a seriously ill single young woman and then ask to drink and play cards together; the artists who want to practice the matador dance but are rudely asked to stop; the unspeakable emotions of aunts and nephews; the men and women who chat over the toilet and the policemen who make records of the little girl while taking notes on the missing case, but actually look for the little girl.
After reading it, I have been thinking about a question, that is, what is called civilization. We are called civilized people because I no longer spit, do not defecate, do not make too much noise, do not use pilaf, do not have children, or we are more educated, which means that there is a higher education, a more systematic and comprehensive, general knowledge, more self-promotion and other morality, empathy and sacrifice spirit, or because the socio-economic conditions are constantly improving, and people's living material level is constantly improving. What Goya's "Shooting the Insurgents on the Night of May 3, 1808" does not show is the weakness of the Spanish upper class, the landowners or the emerging bourgeoisie, the humiliation and surrender, the having to make deals with the invaders in order to protect their vested interests, while doing everything in their power to maintain the innate "civilization and decency" linked to the class, and on the other hand, the weakness of mistakes and mistakes, the deeper nightmares and indelible nightmares and exhaustion.
Man cannot maintain the so-called civilization in a state of war or unsustainable life, because in the environment where survival is the first, no one will be contrived and pretentious enough to show the correct way to drink martini, or to talk about the altitude and degree of sun exposure of the coffee beans, and only when the state maintains society at a relatively stable and safe state and the supply and demand of life are generally satisfied, people have the basic conditions to "civilize themselves", rather than "civilized" in the air pavilion. I think it is precisely in this European context that Buñuel wants to show, because of the fear and insistence and questioning of civilization in the void brought about by the devastation of war, so there is an almost absurd surreal plot in the film, such as six people dressed in elegant and decent clothes at the table talking about the intractable problem of the excrement of the world's population, but they sit under themselves in a chair but a toilet. There are also teachers at the school who call parents and say that the child is missing, but in fact the child is sitting on the seat, the parents can't see it when they get to the school, and they also take the child to the police station, saying that the child is missing, and the police even make a record of the signs of the missing child to the child.
We preach freedom, but there is no real absolute freedom. What kind of situation and position we are in determines what kind of words we say and what we do. If people can't keep the essence of their foundations, they may be carried away by the "freedom of being preached" and make serious irreparable mistakes, just like the monks in the hotel, who at first sit respectfully in the hall and talk about family and faith with women, and then sit in the woman's room while the woman is taking a bath, in the name of praying for her father, and then play cards and drink together, and finally they are invited by the guests next door to play a more out-of-the-ordinary game together. The irony and decay of bourgeois etiquette are displayed predictably.
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