That Obscure Object of Desire

That Obscure Object of Desire (Cet obscur objet du désir, 1977) is a Luis Buñuel drama you can watch online on iFILM. On a train, a wealthy Frenchman named Mathieu dumps a bucket of water on a young woman below — then turns to his fellow passengers and explains why.

His confession circles a teenage flamenco dancer, Conchita, and the cruel game between them. She lets Mathieu close, then pulls away at the last possible moment. She takes his money and bolts the door. Buñuel plays his strangest card here: two actresses, Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina, share the single role of Conchita, swapped scene to scene with no explanation, until you stop trusting your own eyes.

This was the Spanish director's final film, loosely drawn from a Pierre Louÿs novel and laced with random terrorist blasts somewhere off the edge of every frame. Fernando Rey is quietly devastating as a man building his own trap and walking in. Sour, funny and deeply uncomfortable, it rewards viewers who like their romance picked apart rather than served whole. Stream That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) online on iFILM.