There is no doubt that Buñuel is a pro in intriguing and subjective thoughts embedded in the apparently senseless stories. Only a person that is thoughtful enough can do such thing with such grace and yet be so aggressive about it. Morals, expectations and the so called "rights" determined by society are well approached in an unconventional way. Plus, he is also brilliant in criticizing some past tragic events in a humorous yet effective way.<br /><br />The movie happens in pieces of stories that are linked through some irrelevant fact that gives it the flow to escalate with one another. How would you feel if monks smoked and plaid cards? How would you feel if you saw a relationship between a teenager and an older woman? The whole aspect of playing with expectations is somewhat disturbing because everything we see in the movie could happen. Those events would not affect anyone's life negatively, and yet, it would not have been our first thought. That only happens because we are judging sons of the Earth and we love to point fingers and name rights and wrongs. <br /><br />On the other hand, you can only take Buñuel's criticism seriously to a certain level, which is exactly why I think the movie is so geniously put together. The fact that every tableaux (the little stories in the movie) give us just a hint of what's going on, for then move to a new story explains that the director does not mean to agreed people nor to judge subjects being approached, necessarily. He does though, play with our expectations on what would be the natural course of thoughts in our head and he flips them over. <br /><br />Looking at things from different points of view can never be harmful but it can open your eyes and brighten up some shades on our general concepts. Unless your thoughts can not go as far, then you will just think it was a waste of time maybe. The beauty of it is to watch it with no judgment whatsoever. You may think of stuff you never thought before, or you might laugh about some past memories the movie have brought up in your mind.<br /><br />Ultimately Phantom of Liberty really relates to the so called freedom we have. We are supposedly able to think about whatever we want, say whatever we want and act however way we want (as long as it does not interfere with the others', obviously). But how do we really feel when we face that real freedom in real life shaped around the society's morals and values? The concept of freedom just fades away behind those curtains even though they are bragged about all the time.