Actors: Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere & Enrique Rambal
Film Overview
Released in 1962
Producers allowed Bunuel complete freedom to make the film he wanted
“The Exterminating Angel” is the name of a 17th century painting by Valdes Leal
Based on a short story “The Castaways” by Jose Bergamin
The film was shot in Mexico (as many of his mid period films were)
Coolly received at Cannes; however, in retro-spec, it may along with L’Age d’or be his greatest work
When his son, Juan Luis, was asked by the film critics at Cannes about the purpose of the film’s many repetitions, he was instructed by his father to say: “without them the film would have been too short”
Additionally, when his son was asked about the significance of the bear, he was instructed to say: “my father likes bears”
Both L’Age d’or & The Exterminating Angel attack established social and moral values with a highlighting of man’s instincts & passions
Themes: Social & Moral Values & Rituals
Bourgeois Guests slowly descend into a surrealistic uncovering of primal motives
Reveals their most powerful instincts, dreams, and fantasies
Bunuel: I am interested in a life with ambiguities and contradictions
Rituals & Social Rites
The film subverts the sense of order & formality
Patterns of bourgeois ritual are challenged to explore the stirrings of a deeper nature and strong passions
Layers of social refinement are stripped away to reveal a powerful current of primitive emotion
Good Taste is sacrificed in the interests of more basic needs
In the end, the film seems to suggest that humans are no different than animals
Irrational impulses flood to the surface (a dominant pattern in the film)
The films many repetitions (over 20) underline the repetitive nature of human lives
These are formalized in the rites & rituals of the Bourgeois
Points to the absurdity of human life & action
Surreal Processes
Through psychic automatism, Bunuel has the freedom to explore his own imagination and reveal the subconscious of his characters
With this process, Bunuel denies, for the film, both a conscious aim and any one interpretation
Bunuel: I have not introduced a single symbol into the film, and those who hope for a thesis work from me, a work with a message, may keep on hoping! …Everyone has the right to interpret it as he wishes…
Influences
Bunuel had planned a film of Golding’s Lord of the Flies and his own The Castaways of Providence Street
Bunuel intended to create a film based on a group of people separated from their fellow men and exposed to their own virtues & weaknesses
Narrative Form
Begins & Ends with a religious image
Repetitions in Dialogue & Images
Questions to Consider
What returns the guests to their Ritualized & Patterned lifestyles?
Once the guests have escaped their imprisonment – What returns them to another form of bondage?
What role(s) do the servants/staff have in this ritual – both its dismantling and its return to form?
