El ángel exterminador (1962)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Luis Buñuel

Writer:

Luis Buñuel (screenplay)

Release Date:

21 August 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

Plot:

The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.

Plot Keywords:

Guest | Party | Room | Upper Class | Closed Society

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Silvia Pinal	...	Leticia 'La Valkiria'
Enrique Rambal	...	Edmundo Nobile
Claudio Brook	...	Julio, Mayordomo; Steward
José Baviera	...	Leandro Gomez
Augusto Benedico	...	Carlos Conde; Doctor
Antonio Bravo	...	Sergio Russell
Jacqueline Andere	...	Alicia de Roc
César del Campo	...	Alvaro, Coronel; Colonel
Rosa Elena Durgel	...	Silvia
Lucy Gallardo	...	Lucía de Nobile
Enrique García Álvarez	...	Alberto Roc
Ofelia Guilmáin	...	Juana Avila
Nadia Haro Oliva	...	Ana Maynar
Tito Junco	...	Raúl
Xavier Loyá	...	Francisco Avila

Also Known As:

The Exterminating Angel (USA)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Colour:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | UK:12 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Mexico City, México D.F., Mexico

Company:

Producciones Gustavo Alatriste

Trivia:

Was banned in Russia because the idea of people not being allowed to "leave a party" was considered offensive and anti-government.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: After the butler trips in the dining room, the lady of the house follows him into the kitchen. While they speak the boom mic can clearly be seen at the bottom of the screen, extending out from under a table.

Movie Connections:

References The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)

still one of the top comedies about utter frustration

The Exterminating Angel, what a movie- I've seen it twice now and each time it went against (in the best possible way) my better logic. It's a work that's the product of a kind of madman place, and it stays impressive forty plus years later due to its humor. Like Dr. Strangelove, or maybe more so akin to a Kafka work submerged in Catholic plague, the film subverts expectations. At the start of the film, Luis Bunuel makes it clear as day that his only explanation is that its nonsense. If one were wanting to dig on a pure comedy level it would work because the dialog is so strange and out of place (if taken seriously) but consistently so, and the timing of the sort of downward spiral that plunges into the denouement (if there is one). If one were wanting to look at it for more of the technical reasons, its peerless- Bunuel has a steady, carefully controlled camera, quite tradition at times. But then at others he reveals his revealing, awesome flashes of symbolism, which may or may not fly over some viewers heads.

And then, if one were to go so far, on an existential level it goes into the realm of nothingness, a kind of study of how a nonsensical existence, trapped for reasons not made clear to the viewer (barely to the rich cast of bourgeois, a running gag almost), which also calls in the Kafka aspect. By the hand of a surrealist comes a deadpan satire, and it almost becomes a dark fable (the Catholic aspect to the film) by the end. It's a rather shocking film on the first try, which is why it probably had some controversy when it first opened. Giving it another chance, the film works better, on a more sensory level almost. This is the kind of film where you're either scratching your head and turning it off midway through, or laughing (while in the grips of cringing perhaps) and in a weird awe. One of Bunuel's very best Mexican films.