The Exterminating Angel
d. Luis Buñuel, 1962
The Exterminating Angel, one of Buñuel's very best, is arguably the key surrealist work of the cinema in the 20th century. The intensity of its images here is only matched by 1972's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, the theoretical oppossite of The Exterminating Angel. The film begins with several servants to a rich family unexpectedly leaving their post; as the dinner party is about to begin, many of them make up excuses ("My sister is... sick") and make their way out of the enormous home. The guests enter the dining room and proceed to eat dinner as they chat indifferently about different subjects. Dinner ends and they move to the living room, where one of the guests plays one of her own pieces on the piano. Through some strange and unpredictable circumstance, the guests can't make their way out of the dinner party. For some reason or another they feel strangely compelled to remain in that room, and then we as the audience catch up to what Buñuel is up to. Layer by layer, he deconstructs the ideals of these people. It begins with their formal apparel, which they readily take off once it gets late in the night. Then it's proper etiquette, which surely does not include sleeping in your hosts' living room. Days (weeks?) go by and the situation only gets more complicated. One of the guests is seriously ill and eventually dies, rivalries arise, food becomes sparse, and the guests resort to breaking open a wall to find water. Out of this horrible, anarchic microcosm Buñuel crafts a brilliant comedy of manners and something that resembles a behavioral experiment more than a feature film. The brilliant final sequences of the movie, in which the audience watches as the cycle threatens to repeat itself, are quite something. The Exterminating Angel is a true masterpiece by one of cinema's greatest artists.
