Luis Bunuel goes all surrealistic once again but this time without the irreverence. An aging Frenchman (Fernando Rey) becomes obsessed with a young Spanish dancer (played by two different actresses, Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina). He smothers her with gifts, money, apartments in his attempt to possess her while she, ever clinging to her virginity, teases and leads him on to the point of a near meltdown. It's a one joke movie and the joke gets tedious very quickly. For some reason, Bunuel has set the story against the backdrop of a terrorist insurgency but it seems arbitrary and never becomes part of the film's fabric. Other surreal touches like a woman carrying a pig around in public like a baby seem there just for the hell of it. The film's admirers make claims for the film's gimmick casting of two different actresses for the same role as something to do with the duality of woman but neither Bouquet (who four years later would become the Bond girl of
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY) or Molina give a performance that much different from the other. Still, it may be minor Bunuel but it's still Bunuel, master film maker and therefore never without interest.
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