The Exterminating Angel (1962)

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

Director:

Luis Buñuel

Writers:

Luis Buñuel (screenplay by), Luis Alcoriza (story by)

Stars:

Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, Enrique Rambal

4 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Silvia Pinal	...	Leticia 'La Valkiria'
Jacqueline Andere	...	Alicia de Roc
José Baviera	...	Leandro Gomez (as Jose Baviera)
Augusto Benedico	...	Carlos Conde
Luis Beristáin	...	Cristián Ugalde (as Luis Beristain)
Antonio Bravo	...	Sergio Russell
Claudio Brook	...	Julio
César del Campo	...	Alvaro (as Cesar Del Campo)
Rosa Elena Durgel	...	Silvia
Lucy Gallardo	...	Lucía de Nobile
Enrique García Álvarez	...	Alberto Roc (as Enrique Garcia Alvarez)
Ofelia Guilmáin	...	Juana Avila (as Ofelia Guilmain)
Nadia Haro Oliva	...	Ana Maynar
Tito Junco	...	Raúl
Xavier Loyá	...	Francisco Avila (as Xavier Loya)

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:

black comedy | class differences | social satire | surrealism | comedy of manners | 

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Taglines:

Luis Bunuel's controversial and award-winning film

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

21 August 1967 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Exterminating Angel

Filming Locations:

Mexico

Company Credits

Production Co:

Barcino Films, Producciones Gustavo Alatriste, 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 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).

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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

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.

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Alternate Versions

In the uncut print (featured on the Criterion DVD) the guests enter the mansion and go upstairs twice. Some versions omit the surrealistic second arrival.

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Connections

Referenced in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

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Soundtracks

Waltz in E minor
(uncredited)
Music by Frédéric Chopin

User Reviews

Disturbing Dark Dangerous Satire

I am not going to go into much specifics except to say that this is one of the darkest and most disturbing films I have seen. I would certainly in that way rank it alongside David Lynch's "Eraserhead," Werner Herzog's "Even Dwarfs Started Small," Terry Gilliam's "Brazil," and more recently Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch Drunk Love." Each of these films is funny in a way, some hilariously, all subversively. I also must say, not to the detriment of the film necessarily, that this is one of the most irritating films I've seen. Bunuel truly gets under the skin of what gets under our skin: inane quirks, selfish boors, groupthinkers. The most disturbing imagery in the film suggests christian parallels with many of the guests praying or vowing to do good works if released, a butler that studied with jesuits and a final service in a church, as well as several lambs (often representations, as in Blake, of Jesus). Possible also are references to Passover's "exterminating" angel of death, as a brick thrown through a window is at first attributed "some passing Jew." I will not presume to interpret these, and I probably could not do so convincingly if I tried, and, much like with Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive, I don't really want them interpreted for me. This is the wonder of Bunuel. "Cinema is anarchistic" is a probable misquote of him, but from the time of his last film no filmmakers except those above have been able to capture the feeling while watching a film that ANYTHING can happen, and very quickly, and how very frightening that is. The other reason I write is that the VHS of this film is ATROCIOUS. The best part is where one guest babbles on for about 10 seconds, none of which is shown in the subtitles AT ALL. Most of them are difficult to read as they are against a white background, the quality is true crap. "Diary of a Chambermaid" is a fine film but this is the one that truly needs to be seen as it was intended. >