The Obscure Object of Desire

The Obscure Object of Desire is sort of a strange name for a movie. The object of desire is obviously Conchita, an 18 year old Spanish native living in France with her mother. She works but her mother doesn’t like her to. Her father is dead and her mother is very religious although she does not seem to be. Matteiu, a considerably older man, meets Conchita by being her employer for one day when she works as a servant in his house and falls in love with her rapidly. What makes the object of desire, Conchita, so obscure is the way that Matteiu perceives her. In a relation to the Tale of Narcissus, Matteiu falls in love with the illusion of a relationship with Conchita. For this reason, two actresses are used to portray Conchita. The French actress playing Conchita represents who she really is: independent, self accomplished and motivated while the Spanish actress plays the Conchita Matteiu believes is the woman he has fallen in love with. 

It doesn’t take long for Conchita to reciprocate Matteiu’s feelings. But instead of falling in love with Matteiu’s looks, like Echo did in the Tale of Narcissus, Conchita is accused of falling in love with Matteiu’s money, which becomes a reoccurring theme throughout the movie. Money becomes a motivator. It keeps Conchita’s mother happy and supportive of the relationship despite the massive age gap. It becomes a means to achieve Conchita’s goal of owning a house, and it provides a way for Matteiu to ensure Conchita’s financial dependence on him. On numerous occasions, he accuses her of only staying for the money although she insists the money means nothing to her. I believe they have a similar argument a total of three times. From these fights, Conchita accuses Matteiu of being cold and heartless which can parallel how rich old men are sometimes portrayed. This is later backed up by the palm reader in Seville who reveals that he loves a girl but he doesn’t treat her right and that he is rich but mean.

We also see a great deal of compromising and flip flopping in this film. Several times Conchita leads Matteiu on and then flip flops and finds an excuse not to get intimate with him. Also, three times Matteiu forces Conchita to leave although she sees it as her leaving willingly. She tells him she’ll never come back and he promises he’ll never come find her and yet he always goes to find her and she always comes back. As for compromising, there is constant compromising over sex and waiting to have it. Then there is a compromise over Conchita’s dancing in Seville which is settled with a deal that Conchita had to quit her dancing job and in exchange, Matteiu bought her a house of her own. Finally, the couple compromises over getting back together after Mattieu physically assaults Conchita. For some reason, Conchita decides that this action means he cares about her and as a compromise, offers him access to the house he bought her by producing a key, which he rejects. Alternatively, the key may have been a compromise to make him stop hitting her instead.

There is also the issue of sex. We hear that Conchita is a virgin in the beginning of the movie. At first, she has no understanding why sex would ever have any importance in a relationship. Matteiu says he wants to have sex because he loves her and it will let him be closer to her. She resists because she thinks that once she has sex with him, he won’t love her anymore.

The terrorism aspect seems out of place in the movie until you start paralleling it with major events. The first witnessed attack occurred outside of Matteiu’s house which was the first time Conchita came to stay with him. It reflected the hostility they had just displayed in bed toward one another. Later, after Matteiu has bought Conchita a house in Seville, he takes a taxi home that gets carjacked by terrorists. This incident is much more personal and reflects the emotional assault he just endured from Conchita on the first night she has occupied the new house. The final attack occurs in a shopping center when Matteiu and Conchita discover a woman applying lace to a piece of fabric that was disposed of by Mattieu’s servant after a fight in his apartment with Conchita because there was blood on it. Conchita has a disgusted demeanor about her when a bomb goes off and the viewer assumes the couple has died.