The Ugly Side of Desire - "The Obscure Object of Desire"

Comments on "The Obscure Object of Desire"

- Mathieu is a man who is tortured by desire; his"obscure object of desire", Conchita, is playing the part perfectly. She gives him a little hope, and then takes it all away, devastating him. All the audience knows of Mathieu is his desire. Mathieu is desire. Mathieu is always chasing Conchita, who is always disappearing. She is not depicted as a person, but as a magic trick, a staple disappearing act in a magician's disposal. When Mathieu asks Conchita why she disappears, she tells him there is nothing to explain. There is no reason because there is really no Conchita, just this obscure object of desire, this trick. When Mathieu tires of chasing Conchita and just wants her already, Conchita does not identify with him because she cannot- her character does not have humanity. This becomes even clearer when they are in bed and the canvas shorts are revealed- when he does have the chance to fulfill his desires he is physically prevented from doing so. She may appear human in this scene but she is less human than ever because she cannot be physically sexual, she cannot be anything but the object of desire. She cannot "make love to him" because she cannot feel. Mathieu is human, she is not. This is how this film relates to Narcissus and the Mirror concept- Mathieu thinks he is in love and desires a real human being but he doesn't, just like we think we're seeing the real thing when we look in the mirror and we are really seeing an illusion, an image of ourselves.

Some quotes I found interesting:

"You tried to buy me like a piece of furniture" - Conchita.
- Conchita is an object in this film, the object of Mathieu's desire, so just like a nice car or an iPod, Mathieu thought money would gift him some certainty, fulfill his desire, but the whole point of this film is that this desire is never fulfilled, and Mathieu can never be satisfied. He must always want, always desire- something that is very human.

"If I gave you what you want, you'd stop loving me" - Conchita
- This quote really stuck out to me because this happens all the time when a relationship is in its initial stage. If the ultimate desire, usually sex, is fulfilled early on, all that desire for the relationship seems to disappear because there is no relationship at that point.. When Conchita says this in the film, Mathieu thinks he loves her because he desires her, not for who she is. He doesn't know her as a person, so the illusion of love would be shattered once he got fulfilled his desire for her sexually and came to see her past the illusion.

The Animal Imagery

- The mouse and the fly imagery perfectly represents Mathieu and Conchita. Mathieu, the mouse, is constantly chasing after Conchita, the fly. Flies are notoriously hard to capture, and the mouse is an animal known for always being in pursuit of something. The scene in which the fly is in the glass and the waiter says, "A fly! I've been chasing this one for days." directly points out the metaphor and its purpose. When Mathieu sees Conchita, he is mesmerized by her presence and does not actually believe in it. He is in shock when he sees her, which disables his ability to know Conchita as a person. All he can do is see her in this hazy hue, like she is underwater (which makes the fly in the glass even more fitting). This perpetual state of shock is further proved when Mathieu says "I'd stay with her, without so much as moving, as long as I could." When you desire someone, you want them to be around constantly because that person is so unknown and their presence in your life so fleeting. You need that person to be physically present to give you hope.