El ángel exterminador (1962)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

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 | Unknown Power

Awards:

2 wins & 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
Xavier Massé	...	Eduardo
Ofelia Montesco	...	Beatriz
Luis Beristáin	...	Cristián Ugalde
Patricia Morán	...	Rita Ugalde
Patricia de Morelos	...	Blanca
Bertha Moss	...	Leonora
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Janet Alcoriza	...	(uncredited)
Guillermo Álvarez Bianchi	...	(uncredited)
Florencio Castelló	...	(uncredited)
Arturo Cobo	...	(uncredited)
David Hayyad Cohen	...	(uncredited)
Pancho Córdova	...	(uncredited)
Enrique del Castillo	...	(uncredited)
Eric del Castillo	...	(uncredited)
Jesús Gómez	...	Policia; Policeman (uncredited)
Elodia Hernández	...	(uncredited)
Luis Lomeli	...	(uncredited)
Chel López	...	(uncredited)
Rita Macedo	...	Lucía de Nobile (uncredited)
Ángel Merino	...	Lucas (uncredited)
Roberto Meyer	...	Loco; Fool (uncredited)

Directed by
Luis Buñuel

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Luis Buñuel		screenplay and dialogue

Produced by
Gustavo Alatriste	....	producer

Original Music by
Raúl Lavista

Cinematography by
Gabriel Figueroa

Film Editing by
Carlos Savage

Production Design by
Jesús Bracho

Costume Design by
Georgette Somohano

Makeup Department
Esperanza Gómez	....	hair stylist
Armando Meyer	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Antonio de Salazar	....	production manager
Fidel Pizarro	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ignacio Villareal	....	assistant director
Arturo Ripstein	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
José B. Carles	....	sound
Abraham Cruz	....	sound editor
James L. Fields	....	sound
Galdino R. Samperio	....	sound recording engineer

Special Effects by
Juan Muñoz Ravelo	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Ángel Corona	....	still photographer
Manuel González	....	camera operator
Daniel López	....	lighting chief

Editorial Department
Sigfrido García	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Pedro López	....	script supervisor
Nicolás Rueda hijo	....	title designer (as Nicolás Rueda Jr.)

Production Companies

• Producciones Gustavo Alatriste

Distributors

• Altura Films International (1967) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Versátil Home Vídeo (2003) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Arrow Film Distributors (2006) (UK) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Dynit (2009) (Italy) (DVD)
• Facets Multimedia Distribution (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Hen's Tooth Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (New Zealand) (DVD)
• Sagres Filmes (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Tamarelle Video (video)

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, Distrito Federal, Mexico

Company:

Producciones Gustavo Alatriste

Trivia:

The title was taken from a friend of Buñuel, José Bergamin, who was writing a play with that title but never finished it. When Buñuel wanted to title his film, he asked for the rights of the title from his friend, but he answered that there was no trouble, because it was taken from the Bible, the Book of Revelations.

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:

Referenced in Tierra (1996)

The Discreet Charm in México

I discovered surrealist cinema as an adult. Of course, there are such scenes and images in many films, but I saw the first complete surrealist movie as a grown up. It was "Belle de jour", a film by Luis Buñuel, whose work I knew since watching his "Robinson Crusoe" in my childhood. Buñuel had gone a long way since 1928's "Un chien andalou", made in France. He had gone into exile during the Spanish Civil War, first to the United States and finally to México, where he spent the rest of his life. But he made films in Europe now and then, and had regained his status as one of the masters of world cinema. Although he did not think much of his Mexican motion pictures, his masterpiece "El ángel exterminador" is my favorite of all his films. He once complained that Mexican actors were not able to convey the spirit of the "haute bourgeoisie", but what he did not take into consideration was that, if he made a film in México about the rich, he was dealing with something else, called "creole oligarchies." And in this sense, this farce of the 1960s' Latin American "filthy rich" is most accurate. Moreover, with his usual affectionate treatment of the bourgeois (something he rarely did with clergy, female characters, or street urchins), he created a most believable funny portrait of the Latino rich people, who do not know what is their origin, who they should "pay tribute to", or where they are headed, unlike their European ancestors. Here, a group of those characters, born in México, gather for dinner after an opera performance, but when the time comes to leave the house of the Nobiles they cannot leave the room where they reunited for gossiping after meal. There is no apparent reason they cannot leave, but there they stay for days, going back to a primitive state in which their dearest "discreet charm" (euphemism, the rule of the game, as in Renoir's 1939 film) vanishes. And when they are set free, and go to a church to thank the Lord... well, Buñuel sure knew how to make fun of them, with situations verging on the fantastic and funny lines of incoherent, silly or ridiculous dialogue. A wonderful movie, which is always fun to watch again, especially in a double bill with another gem, the last one Buñuel made in México: "Simón del desierto."