That Obscure Object of Desire

3. Why do you think Buñuel uses two actresses to play the part of Conchita? Refer to specific scenes in which one or the other appears to support your answer.

The director uses two actresses to play the part of Conchita to show the two very distinct sides of her.  There is one character of Conchita that is very innocent and rejects Mathieu.  For instance, one actress is always the one who acts very chaste.  She wears a special underwear to prevent Mathieu from sleeping with her, and she constantly teases him by always telling Mathieu tomorrow will be the night which never actually happens.  On the other hand, the other actress is completely in touch with her sexuality, and she almost throws that in Mathieu's face.  She also professes her love for him constantly like at the club where she dances.  The other actress would never dance naked like his actress because the other one acts like a virgin while this one does not.  The director does this specifically to show how complex Conchita is by doing this.  She wants to act like the innocent virgin who rejects Mathieu's advances, yet she also wants to consummate her relationship with him.

7. Do you have any interpretation of the final moments of the film? (The sewing, the music, the explosion….)

I find the ending to be quite comical and very well done.  It would have been so easy for the director to overtly show us what happened, yet he uses the metaphor of the sewing and the explosion to keep us guessing.  The woman in the window is sewing a white nightgown that is stained red.  The camera then proceeds to zoom in on her hands which constantly thread the needle through the lace quickly.  Mathieu is so intrigued by this that he does not even pay attention to Conchita.  This symbolizes how Mathieu and Conchita have finally had sex.  Now that they have had sex, that first time is all Mathieu can focus on.  Just like Calisto, the best part of the relationship was the hunt.  Once they got what they wanted which was sex, they did not want the women anymore.  The explosion comes right after Conchita pushes Mathieu away from her.  This represents how their relationship is going up in flames.  They do not really love each other, it was more of a physical attraction.