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

Director:

Luis Buñuel

Writer:

Luis Buñuel (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

21 August 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Guest | Dinner | Room | Party | Dinner Party

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:
Eric del Castillo
Janet Alcoriza	...	(uncredited)
Florencio Castelló	...	(uncredited)
Arturo Cobo	...	(uncredited)
David Hayyad Cohen	...	(uncredited)
Pancho Córdova	...	(uncredited)
Enrique del Castillo	...	(uncredited)
Jesús Gómez	...	Policia; Policeman (uncredited)
Elodia Hernández	...	(uncredited)
Luis Lomelí	...	(uncredited)
Chel López	...	(uncredited)
Rita Macedo	...	Lucía de Nobile (uncredited)
Ángel Merino	...	Lucas (uncredited)
Roberto Meyer	...	Loco; Fool (uncredited)
Guillermo Álvarez Bianchi	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Luis Buñuel

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Luis Alcoriza		uncredited
José Bergamin		play (uncredited)
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

Music Department
Pietro Domenico Paradisi	....	composer: additional music
Domenico Scarlatti	....	composer: additional music

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)
• Video Latino (1985) (USA) (VHS) (subtitled)
• Video Latino Home Entertainment (1985) (Mexico) (VHS)
• Versátil Home Vídeo (2003) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Arrow Film Distributors (2006) (UK) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (New Zealand) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Dynit (2009) (Italy) (DVD)
• Facets Multimedia Distribution (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Hen's Tooth Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Sagres Filmes (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Tamarelle Video (video)

Also Known As:

"El ángel exterminador" - Mexico (original title)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | UK:12 | USA:Unrated | Australia:M | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico

Company:

Producciones Gustavo Alatriste

Trivia:

Luis Buñuel has publicly stated that he considers the film a failure and that if he shot it later in Paris, he would have gone more extreme with it (cannibalism).

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.

Quotes:

Carlos Conde; Doctor:[Seeing a box of drugs] You kept that here?
Edmundo Nobile:Every now and then we used to meet in this room - just friends - passing unforgetable hours together.
Carlos Conde; Doctor:Why didn't you show it to me?
Edmundo Nobile:I was frightened that the world would find out about it.
Carlos Conde; Doctor:What was used for pleasure can now be used to relieve pain.

Movie Connections:

References The Rules of the Game (1939)

Soundtrack:

Sonata No. 6

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."