1962 / drama, fantasy / 1h 35min /
written by Luis Buñuel, story by Luis Alcoriza & Luis Buñuel / directed by Luis Buñuel /
country: Mexico / language: Spanish with English subtitles
* Streaming Soon
“ The dinner guests arrive twice. They ascend the stairs and walk through the wide doorway, and then they arrive again–the same guests, seen from a higher camera angle. This is a joke and soon we will understand the punch line: The guests, having so thoroughly arrived, are incapable of leaving.
Luis Bunuel’s “The Exterminating Angel” (1962) is a macabre comedy, a mordant view of human nature that suggests we harbor savage instincts and unspeakable secrets. Take a group of prosperous dinner guests and pen them up long enough, he suggests, and they’ll turn on one another like rats in an overpopulation study. . . .
Bunuel died in 1983, leaving behind a wonderful autobiography in which he said the worst thing about death was that he would not be able to read tomorrow’s newspaper. He created a world so particular, it is impossible to watch any Bunuel film for very long without knowing who its director was. “The Exterminating Angel” begins with the statement, “The best explanation of this film is that, from the standpoint of pure reason, there is no explanation.” He might have added, “Those seeking reason or explanations are in the wrong theater.” ”
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