The Exterminating Angel (1962)
"El ángel exterminador" (original title)

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

Director:

Luis Buñuel

Writer:

Luis Buñuel (screenplay)

Stars:

Silvia Pinal, Enrique Rambal, Claudio Brook

2 wins & 1 nomination.

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

Storyline

After a lavish dinner party, the guests find themselves mysteriously unable to leave the room... and over the next few days all the elaborate pretenses and facades that they've built up by virtue of their position in society collapse completely as they become reduced to living like animals...

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Plot Keywords:

guest | dinner | room | party | dinner party | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

21 August 1967 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Exterminating Angel

Filming Locations:

Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico

Company Credits

Production Co:

Producciones Gustavo Alatriste

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Luis Buñuel has claimed the film contains over twenty pieces of repetition in it. The film actually contains 27 instances of repetition.

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Goofs

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.

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Quotes

Julio, Mayordomo; Steward: The help becomes more impertient each day.

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Connections

Spoofed in Muchachada nui: Episode #2.8 (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Sonata No. 6"
(uncredited)
Pietro Domenico Paradisi
Played on piano

User Reviews

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.