That Obscure Object of Desire (Cet Obscur Objet du Désir), France, 1977

Spanish director Luis Bunuel specialized in surreal films. He was very much influenced by French writer André Bréton (The Surrealist Manifesto, Nadya, etc.) and his films are strong influence of Bréton's theories of artistic expression. In this movie, Mathieu is travelling from Sevilla to Paris by train. In the couch he meets a couple of people to whom he starts telling a story of his love affair with a woman named Conchita. From this moment, the movie goes back to Mathieu's first encounter with this very attractive woman. In his films Bunuel has incorporated narrative elements that are still being used in many surreal films, like the use of two actresses for the role of Conchita. In one scene we see one actress, the next scene you see the other actress, and so on. Sometimes he would use the same actors for several roles. At the end of his career, Bunuel was very interested in the subject of terrorism, and we can see that in several scenes in this movie. A car blows up all of a sudden and none of the characters seem particularily bothered by it. I believe Bunuel was influenced by what Bréton wrote in one of his books: "the purest act of surrealism in the real world is to go out on the streets and shoot people at random".