Film: ‘El ángel exterminador (The Exterminating Angel)’

Written and directed by Luis Buñuel, The Exterminating Angel is the surrealist tale of a group of high-society friends who are invited to a mansion for an opulent dinner party and inexplicably find themselves unable to leave. Just as the guests are arriving, the mansion’s cook and servants begin slinking away from their duties for the night—suddenly and mysteriously compelled to excuse themselves. Hardly noticing, the guests enjoy their sumptuous meal, whispering slanderous gossip about one another between bites before retiring to the salon for conversation and music. All seems well and festive until the guests slowly realize that, despite their intended gestures and best efforts to depart, they are unable to leave the premises. Days go by, and the appearance, behavior, and mental state of the guests deteriorate to near madness. Made just one year after his international sensation Viridiana, this film, full of eerie, comic absurdity, furthers Buñuel’s wicked takedown of the rituals and dependencies of the frivolous upper classes. In Spanish with English subtitles.