# Cet Obscur Objet du Désir
**Cet obscur objet du désir** (English title: *That Obscure Object of Desire*) is a 1977 French-Spanish comedy-drama directed by [Luis Buñuel](https://www.edgepedia.org/luis-bunuel), his 32nd and final film, in which an aging French bourgeois recounts his obsessive, perpetually frustrated pursuit of a young woman named Conchita, played alternately by two actresses, [Carole Bouquet](https://www.edgepedia.org/carole-bouquet) and Ángela Molina[1](https://www.premiersplans.org/en/film/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir-6719) • [2](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47184.html). The screenplay by Buñuel and his longtime collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière adapts [Pierre Louÿs](https://www.edgepedia.org/pierre-louys)'s erotic novel *La Femme et le pantin* (The Woman and the Puppet, 1898)[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/686-that-obscure-object-of-desire). It was released in France on 17 August 1977[4](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=46801).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / final film | Luis Buñuel's 32nd and last feature, made when he was 77 years old[1](https://www.premiersplans.org/en/film/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir-6719) • [5](https://www.telerama.fr/cinema/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir-sur-ocs-lenvoutant-dernier-bunuel-6795579.php) |
| Countries / year | France and Spain, 1977[2](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47184.html) |
| French release | 17 August 1977; CNC visa no. 46801, 105 min, 2,835 m of film[4](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=46801) |
| Source | Pierre Louÿs's novel *La Femme et le pantin* (1898)[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/686-that-obscure-object-of-desire) |
| Screenplay | Luis Buñuel with Jean-Claude Carrière[2](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47184.html) |
| Double casting | Conchita played by both Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina[2](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47184.html) |
| Lead actor | Fernando Rey as Mathieu Faber, his voice dubbed by Michel Piccoli[6](https://www.hedmarkfilms.com/that-obscure-object-of-desire/) |
| Producer | Serge Silberman[2](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47184.html) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and narrative structure
The film opens at a train station in Seville, where Mathieu Faber, a wealthy, well-groomed sexagenarian played by [Fernando Rey](https://www.edgepedia.org/fernando-rey), pours a pail of water over the head of a young woman about to board his train[7](https://press.moma.org/wp-content/press-archives/PRESS_RELEASE_ARCHIVE/bunuel.pdf) • [5](https://www.telerama.fr/cinema/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir-sur-ocs-lenvoutant-dernier-bunuel-6795579.php). Intrigued, the passengers in his compartment ask him to explain himself, and the rest of the film is his account of his relationship with Conchita[5](https://www.telerama.fr/cinema/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir-sur-ocs-lenvoutant-dernier-bunuel-6795579.php).
Mathieu first meets Conchita when she is employed in his household; when he summons her to his room to make advances, she quits her post the same evening[8](https://www.critikat.com/actualite-cine/critique/cet-obscur-objet-desir/). Chance keeps placing her in his path across several European cities, but each time he believes he has reached his goal she slips away, provoking him while letting him support her financially, and giving herself to other men[9](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Cet_obscur_objet_du_d%C3%A9sir/1877). The Larousse film dictionary summarizes the dynamic as a game played on three levels: Conchita's game with Mathieu, Mathieu's game with his listeners, and the filmmaker's game with the spectator[9](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Cet_obscur_objet_du_d%C3%A9sir/1877).
The love story runs against a background of terrorist bombings and news items that repeatedly interrupt the narrative[10](https://www.lemonde.fr/vous/article/2009/07/11/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir_1217783_3238.html). Jean-François Rauger, film critic at *Le Monde*, describes the film as "an authentically surrealist opera of sexual frustration," in which the story becomes a via crucis endured by a man who watches the object of his desire escape[10](https://www.lemonde.fr/vous/article/2009/07/11/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir_1217783_3238.html).
## The two Conchitas
The film's best-known device is that Conchita is played by two physically dissimilar actresses who alternate in the role: Carole Bouquet, a sophisticated French beauty, and Ángela Molina, a Spanish coquette[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/686-that-obscure-object-of-desire). The role was initially planned for Maria Schneider, who left the production[10](https://www.lemonde.fr/vous/article/2009/07/11/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir_1217783_3238.html).
Buñuel himself gave a prosaic account of the decision in his memoir *Mon dernier soupir* (My Last Sigh): in 1977 in Madrid, after a tempestuous argument with an actress that brought shooting to a halt, producer Serge Silberman decided to abandon the film; that evening, in a bar, Buñuel proposed using two actresses in the same role, first as a joke, and Silberman embraced the idea and the film was saved[6](https://www.hedmarkfilms.com/that-obscure-object-of-desire/). According to the online film journal Senses of Cinema, Buñuel and Carrière had in fact flirted with the idea of two actresses while working on the script, dismissed it, and returned to it only after Schneider's departure[11](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2013/cteq/that-obscure-object-of-desire/). Critics have read the doubling in several ways: as an image of a woman's changeable, unreadable character, as a statement that desire has no fixed object, or as a theatrical artifice left deliberately unexplained[9](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Cet_obscur_objet_du_d%C3%A9sir/1877) • [12](https://www.cairn.info/load_pdf.php?ID_ARTICLE=TGS_034_0073&download=1).
## Production and place in Buñuel's career
The film was produced by Serge Silberman through Greenwich Film Productions (Paris), Les Films Galaxie, and In Cine (Madrid), with Edmond Richard as director of photography, Pierre Guffroy as production designer, and Hélène Plemiannikov as editor[2](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47184.html) • [11](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2013/cteq/that-obscure-object-of-desire/). The music combines fragments of Wagner's *Die Walküre* with flamenco[13](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-1171/ese-oscuro-objeto-del-deseo).
Buñuel's career ran from *Un chien andalou* in 1929 to this film in 1977, nearly fifty years[14](https://www.cinematheque.qc.ca/fr/cinema/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir/). *Cet obscur objet du désir* closes the final French period of his career, made with the team of Silberman and Carrière that had also produced *Le Journal d'une femme de chambre*, *Belle de jour*, *La Voie lactée*, *Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie*, and *Le Fantôme de la liberté*[15](https://adrc-asso.org/sites/default/files/adrc/ged/Luis%20Bunuel.pdf). The Cinémathèque française notes that it came fifty years after *Un chien andalou*, as a final surrealist gesture[2](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47184.html).
The adaptation has a long screen history. Louÿs's novel had already been filmed by Jacques de Baroncelli in 1929, by [Josef von Sternberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/josef-von-sternberg) as *The Devil Is a Woman* (1935), and by Julien Duvivier in 1959 with [Brigitte Bardot](https://www.edgepedia.org/brigitte-bardot)[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/686-that-obscure-object-of-desire) • [11](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2013/cteq/that-obscure-object-of-desire/) • [16](https://cinepsy.com/film/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir/). The film's title itself echoes a phrase from the novel[17](https://www.senscritique.com/film/cet_obscur_objet_du_desir/413319).
## Release and reception
After the French release on 17 August 1977, the film opened in Spain on 21 September 1977 and rolled out through Europe, reaching the United Kingdom in 1978 and Portugal in 1981[4](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=46801) • [18](https://cineuropa.org/es/film/401270/). The CNC record classifies it "Tous publics" (suitable for all audiences)[4](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=46801).
Critics have treated the film as a summation of Buñuel's themes. Dave Kehr called it "another masterpiece in this 1977 feature, his final film," drawn with what he described as a perfectly clear, impregnable style[19](https://mubi.com/fr/films/that-obscure-object-of-desire/critics-reviews). A MUBI-cited review saw the film as a summation of the director's preoccupation with the connection between sex and violence, with terrorism surfacing in moral, social, and political forms alongside the sexual games[19](https://mubi.com/fr/films/that-obscure-object-of-desire/critics-reviews). [The Criterion Collection](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-criterion-collection) released it on Blu-ray as spine #143, with a 2017 documentary, *Lady Doubles*, featuring Bouquet and Molina discussing the shared role[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/686-that-obscure-object-of-desire). Running times reported by archives differ slightly: the CNC lists 105 minutes, the BFI 103, and [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion) 104[4](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=46801) • [20](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/5695a19d-1cee-5e55-ae81-0fb0817d87a6/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir) • [3](https://www.criterion.com/films/686-that-obscure-object-of-desire).
## References
1. [Cet obscur objet du désir, Festival Premiers Plans d'Angers](https://www.premiersplans.org/en/film/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir-6719)
2. [Cet obscur objet du désir (Luis Buñuel, 1977), La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/47184.html)
3. [That Obscure Object of Desire, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/686-that-obscure-object-of-desire)
4. [Visas et Classification, visa 46801, CNC](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=46801)
5. ["Cet obscur objet du désir", sur OCS : l'envoûtant dernier Buñuel, Télérama](https://www.telerama.fr/cinema/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir-sur-ocs-lenvoutant-dernier-bunuel-6795579.php)
6. [Review of That Obscure Object of Desire, Hedmark Films](https://www.hedmarkfilms.com/that-obscure-object-of-desire/)
7. [Luis Buñuel retrospective press release, MoMA Department of Film](https://press.moma.org/wp-content/press-archives/PRESS_RELEASE_ARCHIVE/bunuel.pdf)
8. [Cet obscur objet du désir, critique, Critikat](https://www.critikat.com/actualite-cine/critique/cet-obscur-objet-desir/)
9. [Cet obscur objet du désir, Larousse, Dictionnaire mondial des films](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Cet_obscur_objet_du_d%C3%A9sir/1877)
10. [CET OBSCUR OBJET DU DÉSIR, Jean-François Rauger, Le Monde (2009)](https://www.lemonde.fr/vous/article/2009/07/11/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir_1217783_3238.html)
11. [That Obscure Object of Desire, Senses of Cinema (2013)](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2013/cteq/that-obscure-object-of-desire/)
12. [Gardey & Hasdeu, "Cet obscur sujet du désir", Travail, genre et sociétés no. 34 (2015)](https://www.cairn.info/load_pdf.php?ID_ARTICLE=TGS_034_0073&download=1)
13. [Ese oscuro objeto del deseo, Institut Valencià de Cultura](https://ivc.gva.es/es/audiovisuales/pelicula-1171/ese-oscuro-objeto-del-deseo)
14. [Cet obscur objet du désir, Cinémathèque québécoise](https://www.cinematheque.qc.ca/fr/cinema/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir/)
15. [Luis Buñuel dossier, ADRC](https://adrc-asso.org/sites/default/files/adrc/ged/Luis%20Bunuel.pdf)
16. [Cet obscur objet du désir, Cinepsy](https://cinepsy.com/film/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir/)
17. [Cet obscur objet du désir, SensCritique](https://www.senscritique.com/film/cet_obscur_objet_du_desir/413319)
18. [Ese oscuro objeto del deseo, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/es/film/401270/)
19. [Cet obscur objet du désir, critic reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/fr/films/that-obscure-object-of-desire/critics-reviews)
20. [Cet obscur objet du désir (1977), BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/5695a19d-1cee-5e55-ae81-0fb0817d87a6/cet-obscur-objet-du-desir)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Erotic thrillers and dramas*
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