Luis Buñuel’s EXTERMINATING ANGEL was completed in Mexico in 1962, but wasn’t released in the U.S. until August 1967, which was the same year that his most famous film, BELLE DE JOUR, was released. Buñuel is known for his surrealist cinema and EXTERMINATING ANGEL is his most surreal feature. This satire uses absurdity to uncover hypocrisy.
Edmundo Nobile (Enrique Rambal) is a wealthy elite who throws a party for the rich set in town. Buñuel is not worried about character here, but brings archetypical characters to his party. After dinner, the host and his guests move into the sitting room, where no one leaves — literally. Some unexplained force makes the guests unable to walk out of the room. Once you enter the room, you cannot leave. The guests camp out on the floor for the night and try to remain dignified. However, when days turn into weeks, niceties of decorum begin to fade and the “pure bloods” are savagely at each other’s throats.
The film deals with issues of how the rich rely on the poor, but would never admit it; how money doesn’t stamp out the savagery of man just hides it; how relationships between the rich and wealthy are all phony; how the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor; how in crisis people cling to religion, but abandon it when the danger has passed; and how sheltered rich are clueless to the real world outside there gilded walls.
Buñuel uses surrealist imagery throughout the film with a bear and lambs wondering the mansion, a dead bird in a purse and a woman hallucinates about a severed hand chasing her. Brilliantly the players act the material straight and allow the director to juxtapose images and exaggerate the scenario for a humorous effect.
Surprisingly and metaphorically the only character who we care about a little is the head butler. He is also the only character to remain composed throughout. The ending of the film I will leave a secret, but it’s brilliant and hilarious.
Along with Alfred Hitchcock and Akira Kurosawa, Luis Buñuel is one of my favorite directors. His films are artistic, challenging, humorous and devious. THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL shows how film can push and bend the boundaries of reality; yet in turn portray reality more clearly. Cinema as protest, art and entertainment does not get better than this.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
