That Obscure Object of Desire
Short description
Luis Buñuel's That Obscure Object of Desire follows Mathieu Faber, a wealthy Frenchman who empties a bucket of water over a young woman at a railway station and then explains the gesture to his fellow passengers. His account reaches back to Conchita, a Spanish woman who came into his household and whose beauty immediately unsettled him. He pursues her across Europe with gifts and declarations, while she alternately draws him close and pulls away, leaving him suspended between longing and fury.
The film was directed by Buñuel from a screenplay he wrote with Jean-Claude Carrière, based on the novel La Femme et le pantin by Pierre Louÿs. It is the fifteenth of the fifteen features he directed, arriving after The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Fernando Rey plays Mathieu, and the role of Conchita is shared by Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina, with Julien Bertheau, André Weber and Milena Vukotić among a credited cast of thirty-one. Serge Silberman produced.
On IMDb the film holds 5.8/10 from thirty votes, while on TMDB it has 7.4/10 from considerably more voters. A critics' rating of 8.8/10 from thirty-five reviews places professional assessment well above the modest IMDb figure and somewhat ahead of the TMDB average.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on the novel by Pierre Louys, "The Woman and the Puppet" (La femme et le pantin, 1898).
- The film might not have been made due to disputes over the actress. Filming began with Maria Schneider in the role of Conchita, but she dropped out during production. Isabelle Adjani, who was supposed to replace her, refused to dance flamenco nude. The project was threatened with cancellation. The producer and director could not agree on who to cast in the lead role – the Frenchwoman Carole Bouquet or the Spaniard Angela Molina. Then Buñuel suggested filming both of them. Thus, Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina alternately play the same role in the film, although, according to the director, not all viewers (like the character Fernando Rey) notice this circumstance.
- One of Luis Buñuel's signature trademarks is insects. In this film, in a scene where the protagonist is having lunch with his brother in a restaurant, a fly gets into a glass of water.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
