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IMDb > El ángel exterminador (1962)

El ángel exterminador (1962) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
8.1/10   6,433 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 5% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Luis Buñuel
Writer:
Luis Buñuel (screenplay)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Exterminating Angel on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
21 August 1967 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Fantasy | Mystery more
Plot:
The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
1 win & 1 nomination more
NewsDesk:
(3 articles)
The Exterminating Angel/Simon of the Desert
 (From PasteMagazine. 27 February 2009, 7:18 AM, PST)

Two From Buñuel, "W."
 (From IFC. 17 February 2009, 10:41 AM, PST)

User Comments:
An explanation? There is none. more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
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
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
The Exterminating Angel (USA)
more
Runtime:
95 min
Country:
Mexico
Language:
Spanish
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound System)

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
In the church scene - the first scene of the movie to be shot - Rita Macedo appears as "Lucía de Nobile". She was not able to complete the film due to her pregnancy. more
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. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Buñuel y la mesa del rey Salomón (2001) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
36 out of 45 people found the following comment useful:-
An explanation? There is none., 23 October 2003
8/10
Author: dbdumonteil

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.

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Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Two interesting things about this movie jaime_grijalbagomez
Help please!!! kabra33
For those of you who think... marcolopolis25
Explanation: an allegory about escaping the cycle of death and rebirth Tchoutoye
Questions bruno333ala
Criterion DVD cadematthews
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