the phantom liberty

'the phantom liberty'
dir., luis bunuel
1974

there were bits and pieces of the borat movie that i enjoyed, but the scene that i thought had the most interesting insight was the dinner table scene in which borat is taught the valuable etiquette of dining at a table. dining room manners are something we as americans may not think of revealing much about our culture, but the song and dance routine of dining is very telling part of our culture in terms of gender roles, the omnipotent tension in american society between the vulgar and the pure, and changing technology. with the new roles of fast food, cable television, and single parent families in american life, the dinner table is slipping into irrelevancy. nowadays it almost seems like something out of a norman rockwell painting to sit around a table with your family. luis bunuel's foresight into the decline of this cultural value and what is says about a society is acutely subverted in his film 'the phantom of liberty.'

it's difficult to explain the scene outside of the context of the rest of the movie, but the film is more or less a collection of vignettes that expose and critique the hollowness and silliness of bourgeois society. much like borat's incorporation of poop and its improper place at the dining room table, bunuel expertly switches the very different worlds of the dining room table and the bathroom. in bunuel's world it is not uncommon for its inhabitants to think it is bizarre to sit at a toilet while dining or to be discreet about when you have to eat. this cinematic symbolism is strong in its attack on middle class values. notice the topic of conversations (art, travel, the frustrations of public life), admonishment of vulgarity at the table, and the boy, girl seating arrangements--all things you would expect from bourgeois society. however, the pink elephant in the room are the characters seated on toilets, almost to suggest that bunuel is shitting (pardon the language) on this cultural norm and showing its (and so many others) inherent arbitrariness. although this film was made by europeans and filmed in parts of europe, there is a very american sensibility that permeates the film and particularly this scene. the puritanical aversion to the body and all of its excretions and the blind eye we turn to the degradation of the world around us all feels very american and current.

the scene is funny, sharp, and a witty look at the shit that we are not typically permitted to discuss but can in a bunuelian world.