Perversity and Post-Marxian Thought in Buñuel's Late Films

Abstract

This article examines certain motifs from Luis Bunuel's late trilogy-- The Discreet Charm of the Bourgoisie ( Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie, 1972), The Phantom of Liberty ( Le Fantome de la Liberte, 1974), and That Obscure Object of Desire ( Cet Obscur Objet du Desir , 1977)--in order to show how they anticipate key trends in contemporary post-Marxian philosophy. In doing so, it draws upon the work of Slavoj Žižek, whose Lacanian revision of Hegel has provided a model of ideology critique that preserves the structure of dialectical thought while avoiding the impulse to project a closed vision of subjectivity and historical change. In particular, such a model offers a means of reconsidering Bunuel’s concern with the perverse . Rather than having a singular ideological content (i.e., the repressed desire for freedom within consciousness), the perverse in Bunuel’s films serves as a more volatile index of ideological conflict: freedom becomes perverse from the perspective of law, and law becomes perverse from the perspective of freedom. To recognize these dialectical reversals not only offers a means of appreciating Bunuel’s sense of humor, but also sheds light on how the late films situate bourgeois and revolutionary impulses in a much more complex, interdependent, and dynamic relationship with one another.