Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

chaswe-28402 It was I.B.Singer who said "Of course I believe in freedom and free will. I have to believe in them. I have no choice." No doubt Bunuel was predestined to make this pointless film about Liberty. It consists of a daisy chain of disconnected, or tenuously connected, episodes that merge into each other in an accidental and meaningless manner. The popular American word is "segue", a musical word, often linked with "seamlessly". I can't remember hearing any music in this film, however. Was there any ? Its only logic is its illogicality, which gets tiresome, if you think about it. It isn't necessary to think about it though, as each episode is fairly interesting on its own, and you wonder what he'll dream up next. The net result, unfortunately, is a feeling of vacuity. The ultimate sensation is one of dissatisfaction.Senselessness is the aesthetic blight of the last century, ever since Duchamp presented us with his fountain in 1917, voted the most significant work of art of the last 100 years. Some people see The Phantom of Liberty as the ultimate motion picture. The bird at the end is not an ostrich: it's a rhea.

Azra666 If you're not familiar with surrealism, this is a must watch as its 100% concentrated surrealism will keep you entertained and confused throughout the entire movie.This was my first Bunuel movie so I didn't know what I was expecting but certainly not this. The movie was organized in episodes or tableaux's. Every episode continues after one another and contain their own essence and message. They question the concept of reality. what is reality? is it what you make of it? how was it establish? who made the rules? My favorite tableaux has to be the scene where the family switched the role of the bathroom and dining room. It completely took me off guard, I was pleasantly surprised. And that's when I truly understood surrealism. To me, that scene was the definition in surrealism. why do we do the things the way we do?This is was a brilliant movie and I will surely watch every one of sir Bunuel's movies. This was my gateway to surrealism. Hopefully, it's yours too.

kanpitcha54 This movie was no joke. Literally. I was completely lost the first time i had seen it. Before i was the kind of film lover who would just see film simply just to enjoy and didn't expect to really get anything out of it, may be educationally but surely not this level of intellectual outcome. The Phantom of Liberty, after explained and discussed in class by an excellent professor, i came to appreciate this film, and understand what it was trying to convey. I got so much out of this film. It had helped me to see a different side of the situation and be curious about things, the world and the people around me and to ask the what if question. I also like that it show the idea that life is full of random chances that we might encounter one day.

carrie-finklea The tableaux of the serial killing poet is incredibly disturbing, especially in the times that we live in today where mass shootings have become a bi-weekly ordeal. The serial killer has absolute power to use his sniper rifle and shoot whoever he pleases in the unsuspecting community below. Bunuel seems to be using him as a metaphor for questioning the inevitability of human nature. Yes, we all want freedom. However, too much freedom might lead us to the same path of corruption, power struggle and oppression. Without some sort of set of rules, morals, and ethics, what kind of human being would emerge? Are we sure that we are inherently good? Where would 'absolute freedom' lead us to, as an individual and a society? These questions reveal a terrifying answer for me. I thought about what the world would be like if there were no consequences. That is what we mean by absolute freedom, right? We are free to do as we please with no restrictions from another individual or group. There are no laws or institutions telling me what is legal and illegal, what will be shown on my credit report, or what I have to inform my prospective employer. If there were no consequences, what would my actions be? Are my actions because in result of social conventions and legalities or because of my own inherent ethical and moral code? If I were absolutely free, would I be the dutiful citizen briskly crossing the street inside the lines of a crosswalk to get to work on time or would I be the rebellious poet taking advantage of my freedom and doing as I please? Am I compliant out of fear of consequence (legally and socially) or are my choices organic and thus meaning I am inherently good? The answer is impossible to know. I cannot imagine a world without social conventions, rules, expectations, consequences, and morality. I would like to think of myself as a good person, but I also know there have been plenty of times when I have wanted to cheat the system, and would do so if I wouldn't get caught (getting out of jury duty for example). The latter is troublesome for me. If the inclination is there, what makes me think it is not possible for me to end up just like the serial killer if there was such a world of 'Absolute Freedom'? In several tableaux, I found judgment and/or objectivity to be a common theme. I often watch a film with too many pretenses or form opinions before I ever know the context. It is a quality I am not proud of and am working on improving. However, with 'Phantom of Liberty', Bunuel refuses the viewer the opportunity to judge. He forces you to have an open mind and thus accept the world he has created.He does this in many ways. For one, the way he tells the story is, at first, very jarring, perplexing, and borderline frustrating. We are accustomed to following a protagonist and/or an antagonist with whom we as an audience are allotted an entire hour and a half to critique, over-analyze, and connect or disconnect with. Yet Bunuel gives us exactly the opposite. Each tableaux brings a fresh new group of characters and setting in which we have no previous relationship with. We are not allowed to create relationships with these characters - there is no time to! Thus, we are forced to watch objectively and with this objectivity we can interpret Bunuel's message.The surrealistic elements he ads to scenes seemed to be another effort to force me to open my eyes and see outside the box. For example, the husband who we assume is dreaming about an ostrich in his room, only later to realize it is real. In the hotel, the monks playing poker, the Spanish couple dancing, and the businessman in ass-less chaps. Once I accepted these plausibilities, I was free to explore what Bunuel was trying to say.Bunuel even dedicates an entire tableaux to the idea of judgment with the scene of the dinner party in which the family defecates at the table and eats in the bathroom. Had Bunuel not already established in the previous stories that he was taking me for a ride and I have to think outside of what I am used to, I would have missed the entire point. I would have assumed this scene at face value was simply a parody. Luckily, Bunuel had well-equipped me for this scene (I was already watching objectively) and I was ready to accept it and find its deeper meaning.