El Ángel Exterminador

Plot synopsis:
During a formal dinner party at the lavish mansion of Señor Edmundo Nóbile and his wife, Lucia, the servants unaccountably leave their posts until only the major-domo is left. After dinner the guests adjourn to the music room, where one of the women, Blanca, plays a piano sonata. Later, when they might normally be expected to return home, the guests curiously remove their jackets, loosen their gowns, and settle down for the night on couches, chairs and the floor.
By morning it is apparent that, for some inexplicable reason, they are unable to leave. The guests consume what little drinks and food are left from the previous night's party. Days pass, and their plight intensifies; they become thirsty, hungry, quarrelsome, hostile, and hysterical – only Dr. Carlos Conde, applying logic and reason, manages to keep his cool and guide the guests through the ordeal. One of the guests, the elderly Sergio Russell, dies, and his body is placed in a large cupboard. Much later in the film, Béatriz and Eduardo, a young couple about to be married, lock themselves in a closet and commit suicide.
The guests eventually manage to break open a wall enough to access a water pipe. In the end, several sheep and a bear break loose from their bonds and find their way to the room; the guests take in the sheep and proceed to slaughter and roast them on fires made from floorboards and broken furniture. Dr. Conde reveals to Nóbile that one of his patients, Leonora, is dying from cancer and accepts a secret supply of morphine from the host to keep her pain under control. The supply of drugs is however stolen by Francis and Juana, a brother and sister. Ana, a Jew and a practitioner of Kabbalah, tries to free the guests by performing a mystical ceremony, which fails.
Eventually, Raúl suggests that Nóbile is responsible for their predicament and that he must be sacrificed. Only Dr. Conde and the noble Colonel Alvaro oppose the angry mob claiming Nóbile's blood. As Nóbile offers to take his own life, a young foreign guest, Leticia (nicknamed "La Valkiria") sees that they are all seated in the same positions as when their plight began. Upon her encouragement, the group starts reconstructing their conversation and movements from the night of the party and discover that they are then free to leave the room. Outside the manor, the guests are greeted by the local police and the servants, who had left the house on the night of the party and who had similarly found themselves unable to enter it.
To give thanks for their salvation, the guests attend a Te Deum at the cathedral. When the service is over, the churchgoers along with the clergy are also trapped. It is not entirely clear though, whether those that were trapped in the house before are now trapped again. They seem to have disappeared. The situation in the church is followed by a riot on the streets and the military step in to brutally clamp down, firing on the rioters. The last scene shows a flock of sheep entering the church in single file, accompanied by the sound of gunshots.

Tags: comedy, avant garde, allegory, insanity, absurd, psychedelic, satire

Review:
The key to this movie is setting up the central plot, and the director does such a good job of it that after a while; we don't care that the film is based on an idea that makes no sense at all, and are just able to run with it.
That was what Luis Bunuel used to answer when asked about the meaning of one of his least accessible works.Much less linear than "Viridiana" -featuring the same actress Silvia Pinal-which precedes it,"El Angel exterminador" can be looked upon as an allegory.We find a lot of permanent features of the Bunuel canon in it though.The fact that the guests cannot leave the luxury house will find an equivalent in "le charme discret de la bourgeoisie"(1972) when the five characters cannot have a good meal at the restaurant;the guests turning like lions in a cage echo to this strange picture of the five heroes of "charme discret" walking on an endless road.This is the kind of movie that will have as many interpretations as there are users writing about it.And Bunuel would probably be the first to say that anyone is allowed to see his movie as he feels it in his soul -which is a word he would not certainly approve of though.Another put-down of the bourgeoisie ,probably;As Charlie Chaplin would not have let an ice-cream fall on a poor woman's dress,Bunuel's wholesale massacre concerns the rich,the well-to-do.The house may be a metaphor for their world which they want to keep exactly as it is.But Bunuel soon scratches the varnish and after long hours,his powerful bourgeois are just men and rather hateful selfish cowards -the scene when they rush to get a glass of water.And as they cannot rely on themselves and on their pals,the only assistance can only come from above:so they promise God they will chant Te Deums, they will go to Lourdes and buy a washable rubber Virgin (sic).Surrealist pictures,which had been absent since "cela s'appelle l'aurore" (1955) come back for a while during one night,and they mainly deal with religion and heaven.The mystery of the night hours will come back in "le fantôme de la liberté" (1974)The last pictures bring the missing link :the army ,shooting people (talking about a revolution?) ,as the bourgeois keep on singing(?) and praying(?)in the cathedral.Recommended?Everything Bunuel did is crying to be watched..
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.
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.
This film has an interesting premise: a dinner party of rich bourgeoisie find themselves inexplicably unable to leave the house.
The resolution is utterly meaningless and random, and it leaves you saying to yourself "I could have thought of a million better ways to end that movie." But as it were, Bunuel chose the most vapid resolution, similar to a cheezy TV scifi drama where the solution is to "switch the polarity from plus to minus!" This film is utterly unfulfilling to anyone who is thirsty for philosophy and depth.
Luis Bunuel used this simple meta-narrative concept of people trapped, to create one of his finest satires, and his first explicitly surrealist film since L'Age D'Or (1930).
After Bunuel's previous film, Viridiana (1961), was condemned by the Vatican and banned in his native country of Spain (and where it was made), he moved back to Mexico where he had been making films throughout the 1940's and 50's, and produced a scabrous attack on General Francisco Franco's Spanish fascist dictatorship, and the institutions, and bourgeois facets of the country that were founded on the destruction of the poor and the proletariat, during the civil war that ended in 1939.Whilst the film works as political allegory, on a base narrative level, it functions as an irrational comedy; or farce.
But with this, it also shows how even the "civilised" sections of society, once they are stripped of their social status, their inherited manners of "education", and their ability to use wealth, the fall into absolute decay, probably falling apart greater than the lower classes, with their lessened moral outlook, and an almost infantile inability to deal with regular obstacles.Winner of the 1962 Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival, this was to begin what become (rather belatedly for the 62 year old) his most productive, celebrated and interesting period of his career, based in Paris, beginning with Belle de Jour (1967) and ending with That Obscure Object of Desire (1977).
This is weird story about a group of higher class , a drama with surrealism and sour portrait upon social stratum , catholicism , with plenty of dream imaginary and many other things , being stunningly realized by the Spanish maestro of surrealism , the great Luis Buñuel .
Interesting and thought-provoking screenplay from the same Luis Buñuel and Luis Alcoriza, Buñuel's usual screenwriter ; they pull off a straight-faced treatment of shocking subject matter .The movie script was original and early working title "The Castaways of Providence Street" , then Luis Buñuel took the title The Exterminating Angel from his friend José Bergamin, the Spanish poet, who had mentioned it the year before for a play he wanted to write .
Most Buñuel's films were surreal black comedies , parables that satirized moral hypocrisy , social moral , artistic pretension, and , of course , the Catholic Church .
The ending is ridiculous without being funny and the ending after the ending was a predictable way to stretch the thin idea past 90 minutes.Yes, Luis Buñuel had an interesting career but I don't know why people consider this his best work..
If you want an introduction into the anarchic, surrealistic, bourgeois-baiting world of Luis Bunuel 'The Exterminating Angel' is the best place to start.
The initial premise is simple, albeit puzzling - the guests at a dinner party mysteriously find themselves unable to leave their hosts house at the end of the evening.
Me, I think he made some of the greatest movies of all time, especially his fertile 1960s period which included some of his very best work like 'Belle De Jour' and yes, 'The Exterminating Angel'..
Best not to try to assign any symbolic meaning to it unintended by the director (as an opening note from the director states, more or less.) I really must see some more of Buñuel's films; I've only seen a few.Unfortunately, the video I watched (Hen's Tooth Video) was a little washed-out looking, with definition lost most in the brightest whites and darkest blacks.
The social ritual in which assorted bourgeois people sit at a large banquet table and are plied with different courses of elegantly prepared food by foot servants, which had been anxiously and expertly prepared by the chef and his kitchen staff.Bunuel alerts us {the viewers} early as to the incipient chaos to follow by having the kitchen staff abandon their conventional order of events by unpredictably walking off the job.
The result is a lingering death paralyzed within the chalked circle.At the end of the dinner, and after pleasantries and some cultivated appreciation of classical piano playing, the invisible circle is chalked at the exit to the dining-room leaving the assorted guests unable to perform the act of taking their leave and departing.Here you have the central issue of the film, as the bourgeois guests descend into a nightmarish hell of inertia, apathy and utter lack of resourcefulness, so that the typical bourgeois traits of herd-like conformity, self interest and alienation become stumbling blocks to the simple human capacity to act.
People die, lovers commit suicide, sheep {the lamb of God?} are eaten as civilization, of which the human social phenomenon of the bourgeois can be considered to be its apex, crumbles back into the cesspool of primal soup from which it developed.The spell is eventually broken when one of the guests remembers the alchemical and ancient magical practice of reenacting the events that led up to the circle being drawn but then changing its chain of magical order by leaving, {like an automaton}, at the usual time and mannerThe movie then reverts back to the prologue with the sheep entering the Cathedral, in order to worship.
You can only find this film more like a comedy, with people complaining because they just can't seem to leave the darn dinning room.
These days such a line would cross another line, but like racism...while things have grown better over time, I think a lot of classist attitudes have gone covert, and still flourish till this day.Many people have cited the opening quote from this film: "The best explanation of this film is that, from the standpoint of pure reason, there is no explanation." Which could be a good premise for a horror film (which this film oddly could be seen as), or more likely as a surrealist's credo.
It gave my mind one last twist, and made me twig on the ridiculous notion not so long ago proffered by some that Iraqi's needed someone like Saddam Hussein to "lead" them.The world is still surreal even though Bunuel has left the dinner party..
The interest quickly evaporates into boredom as we get repeated views of guests descending into lethargy when they find they can't bring themselves to leave the dining room, which gradually begins to resemble a pig sty.Now, I, personally, have a reputation as leaning strongly to the left, so my lack of appreciation of Bunuel doesn't stem from opposition to his political orientation.
THE HUCKSTERS shows another sort of up-scale scoundrel at work, and there are many other films that display the villainy and lack of any moral integrity of upper class types in a manner far more interesting and meaningful than folks of the ilk of Bunuel and Berthold Brecht ever did.
When the film starts we are watching first the servants one after the other leaving the mansion, except the valet, who is staying to serve the guests.
Just perfect!!Big fans of Luis Bunuel appreciate the perfection of this movie....I could watch this film again and again......
In one way you could look this movie as a post-modernist, there's no real answers to life and such, but I tend to say that this is a criticism about the class wars, social satire and surrealist piece of art.
I don't know, the trapped in a room thing, could be a metaphor on how they are all living in their own world, how they live in this box (or a room) and how they don't break out from that.I'm going to try to makes sense on why couldn't they leave...
Luis Bunuel's film follows a dozen or so members of an upper class society in Mexico City attend a dinner party at a large mansion where, for no apparent reason, they find themselves unable (psychologially, not physically) to leave a music room.
Bunuel's 1962 film revolves (almost literally) around a group of middle-class people at a dinner party.
The ending reveals more than I will say but I think this is Bunuel's best film of those I've seen and it is a crisp, timeless watch which asks more questions than it answers..
i had probably seen these pieces before because i am a snob and an 'intellectualloide', although it might also be due to the fact that i'm European.i've been watching: _los olvidados_, 1950, _viridiana_, 1961, _belle de jour_, 1967, _tristana_, 1970, _ensayo de un crimen_, 1955, _el ángel exterminador_, 1962 and _the discrete charm of the bourgeoisie, 1972although i still have much left to see, i have concluded that his work differs from time to time.-some keywords are: *surrealism *sade *dreams *abject *poverty *Mexico** *méxico** *méjico** *france *españa-some key words are": .oneiric world .social realism .social critique .ancient regime .the 20s .the 30s .the 50s .the 60s .the 70s .the bells (the sound of bells on moving animals) .folk tales .folk remembrances .death .self sacrifice-also, my partner and i had a problem watching _el ángel exterminator).
Buñuel's 1962 masterpiece of bourgeoisie-baiting Freudian repression, 'The Exterminating Angel' is a Surrealist slaughterhouse.A group of wealthy upper-class members of the bourgeoisie find themselves mysteriously trapped inside a house when attending a lavish dinner party.
The doors are not locked and there is no logical reason why they cannot leave, yet they remain trapped like prisoners, and likewise, no one can enter (the flummoxed police are stationed outside, trying to work out how to save the rich people).
The poor are more important to the rich than they ever realise.A film like 'The Exterminating Angel' serves to remind us that, regardless of wealth, we are all trapped inside the frigid, repressive boxes of our own (and society's) creation, and a conscious decision to leave them on our own terms is nearly impossible..
The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.Following the Viridiana scandal, Buñuel returned to Mexico, but kept his production team and decided to make another movie starring Silvia Pinal.
The film, originally called The Outcasts of Providence Street, was renamed The Exterminating Angel after Buñuel picked it from an unfinished play his friend José Bergamín was writing at the time.
Movie, surrealistic (what a word!) and with this Spanish film director I mark our future goal.I prefer to accept the story as theoretical setting, presenting the bubble of happiness of the rich class in society - the so-called "elite" who never gave up their status and would not admit it to someone lower.
The film ends with a flock of sheep running towards the church where the people are imprisoned, suggesting that human beings are like lambs to the slaughter.
Exterminating Angel, The (1962) *** (out of 4) Luis Bunuel's film about a group of people, who after dinner can't leave the room they are in.
THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL is a surrealist drama about a high class as social parasites, which are gathered in one place.After a visit to an opera, a group of fashionable people from high society has gathered at a party in a villa of a respected gentleman and his wife.
I found a lot of good information along with some glaring errors regarding the film, to which I attribute the possibility that the authors probably did not have access to a videotape copy of the movie and were thus unable to view it many times over.That being said, I've been able to gather that the movie is primarily Buñuel's impression of "high society" parties that seem to go on forever (as he stated himself in several interviews).
No one could throw a party on the screen like Don Luis Bunuel did - in his films people just can't get enough of the parties - they either can't get started ("The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie") or they are so sumptuous that the guests would never leave - in a perfect companion piece to the Discreet Charm.., "The Exterminating Angel" (1962), very funny comedy with very dark (as usual for Bunuel) humor.
They just don't have a willpower to open the door and go outside where the police, family members, and press are waiting...not be able to make few steps to the party house and open the door from outside....Once again Bunuel proves that he is one of just a few artists who could tell the same joke over and over again and get away with it creating the film as perplexing, absurdist, bizarre and in the same time irresistibly funny and clever as "The Exterminating Angel".
In the morning, for an unknown reason, it is apparent they are trapped in the music room, not physically but psychologically, unable to leave the guests consume what little water and food they can find from the previous night's party.
Mexican movie-maker Luis Buñuel, well-respected for his surrealist films, outdid himself with this.
The story is simple: some dinner guests strangely find themselves unable to leave the house where they have eaten.Rather than indulge in outlandish visuals to create an effect as Buñuel frequently did, this film conveys its surrealistic magic chiefly through dialogue.
I read some other reviews afterward to see what other viewers thought.Overall, the movie felt like a combination of a long Twilight Zone episode combined with a surrealistic art house film.
The director was clearly making a commentary on the upper class of Mexico at the time the movie was made, including much of the inane interaction that typically happens at social events.
Bunuel did have a couple of instances where a scene repeated itself, but I frankly did not understand why.The device of having the party guests trapped in the room was never explained, and I think I preferred it that way.
In The Exterminating Angel high society dinner guests find themselves unable to leave the room, stay there for days, and lapse into neurosis before the strange spell is broken; when they go to church to give thanks, they find themselves unable to leave.The film is a fascinating surrealist fantasia on themes elaborated with even more panache in The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (1972).
POSSIBLE SPOILERSIt does come as a little boring but Luis Bunuel's "The Exterminating Angel" is a lot better than "L'age D'or."  A group of aristocratic socialites are invited to a dinner part and for some apparent reason, they don't leave.
This satire shows Bunuel's contempt for the middle class aristocracy; the way the individuals, for some reason, lack the will to leave the premises.
Making Cinema Out Of Thin Air. I seldom watch movies that are built on nothing and yet transmit as many ideas as Luis Buñuel's The Exterminating Angel.
When one stops to reflect how this movie is built, one realises it's just a group of people trapped inside a living room; and yet it holds the viewer in thrall until the end.An upper class couple invite their friends for a pleasant dinner.