Long Live Death! The End of Revolution in Luis Bunuel's The Phantom of Liberty

Abstract

The confrontation between France and Spain in the Napoleonic period imaged in the prologue to Luis Buñuel's Phantom of Liberty (1974) introduces themes explored throughout the film: the cultural and historical forces that shape national identity, the contradictory nature of freedom, the connection between political and psychological realities (Oedipal conflicts both), and the enduring presence of Francisco Goya.

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

“…('Long live the chains!'). The historical context of this scene is important; while Goya and other Spanish liberals initially embraced the ideals of the French revolution, Napoleon's betrayal of these ideals led them to prefer the authority of the Spanish monarchy as the lesser of two evils (Jones 2003). 16 Thus we encounter another deadlock: rather than evoking some higher, coherent meta-concept of freedom, the cry from the dying Spaniard can only provide a perverse affirmation of its opposite, which in turn implies the renunciation of its perverse form in the French occupation.…”