The Exterminating Angel

Synopsis:
One of Luis Buñuel's finest films, filled with humor, political barbs and wildly strange events. Nobile, an upper-class gentleman, has invited a group of friends to his home for a post-opera dinner. But even before the guests arrive, something bizarre happens: all the servants are seized by an irresistible compulsion to walk out. And worse is yet to come: at the hour when everyone should depart, for some inexplicable reason no one can leave Nobile's drawing room. Although no physical barriers prevent them from exiting, they all halt at the door and turn back. As the food and water run out, and tensions rise, the group begins to argue amongst themselves... and soon they've abandoned any pretense of "good breeding" and "polite behavior". It's every man for himself and only the strongest survive.

Notes:
Produced by Uninci Films 59. Premiered in Mexico May 8, 1962. There is an old Mexican saying: "After twenty-four hours, corpses and houseguests start to smell bad." Buñuel had this to say about the film: "[It is] a metaphor, a deeply felt, disturbing reflection of the life of modern man, a witness to the fundamental preoccupations of our time. Its images, like the images in a dream, do not reflect reality, but themselves create it." The film is based on an unpublished play entitled "Los Náufragos" by José Bergamín. The original scenario was entitled "Los Náufragos de la calle de la Providencia." Additional cast: Luis Beristáin (Christián); Antonio Bravo (Russell); Claudio Brook (Majordomo); César del Campo (The Colonel); Rosa Elena Durgel (Silvia); Lucy Gallardo (Lucía, Nobile's Wife); Enrique García Alvarez (Señor Roc); Ofelia Guilmain (Juana Avila); Nadia Haro Olivia (Ana Maynar); Tito Junco (Raúl); Xavier Loya (Francisco Avila); Xavier Massé (Eduardo); Angel Merino (Lucas, the Waiter); Ofelia Montesco (Beatriz, Eduardo's Fiancée); Patricia Morán (Rita, Christián's Wife); Patricia de Morelos (Blanca); and Bertha Moss (Leonora).

Reviews:
"...Surreal....THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL is fantasy filmmaking..." - 04/25/1996 Los Angeles Times, p.F3

"...Luis Bunuel's THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL is a macabre comedy, a mordant view of human nature....He created a world so particular, it is impossible to watch any Bunuel film for very long without knowing who its director was..." - 05/11/1997 Chicago Sun-Times, p.5

"[THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL is] among the most free-spirited of Bunuel's films, fully recovering the nonnarrative liberty of his earliest work." - 02/06/2009 New York Times