El ángel exterminador / The Exterminating Angel (1962) – 2/5

This film did not kill it for me

„El ángel exterminador“ or „The Exterminating Angel“ is a Spanish-language film from 1962, so this one had its 60th anniversary last year already and this is a 100% Mexican production which is nothing too spectacular nowadays if you look at the at least three famous Mexican directors who have won Best Director Oscars, but back then it was more unusual. The director Luis Buñuel has always gone a bit back and forth in terms of French and Spanish productions, so the language was not an obstacle at all and it is no surprise to see him in charge of a Mexican movie here. He was already over the age of 60 here as he was born in the first year of the 20th century. I imagined him younger here, which probably also had to do with some of his most known works having happened in the 1970s and they look so different compared to this film here, most of all because of the color, but yeah Buñuel has of course made films since the 1920s, so this shows you how long he has been active and for how long he has been working on black-and-white movies already when he added this one to his collection. His final successes, also with the Oscars, show that he was far from done in the 1960s and also 1970s. Death was an unintentional finish line for him then around 1980. He had the inspiration and creativity to make movies for many decades to come and surely he would have made the most out of all the new technologies and happily embraced then. But today we want to talk about his movie here: It is surely not one of his least known, but instead steadily turning into one of his most known. I saw this yesterday as part of a film retrospective on Buñuel and to be honest I am a bit disappointed by the outcome and it is my least favorite film so far. Five more will follow, so we will see if it stays in the last spot.

The 8/10 on imdb I find baffling though. This actually makes it a contender for (one of) his best. I will go into detail later on about why the film did not do a lot for me, but for now let me say that I just read that Buñuel himself called the film a failure because he could/did not go into extremes as much as he would have loved to, so you can say that not even reviewers sometimes feel the need to add stuff to their creations, but same is true for those actually making the movies. Reviewers have it much easier there I guess. Anyway, I would probably not agree with Buñuel’s words that the film is a failure, but it is also not a good movie, even if the majority of people (or at least critics) might disagree. The elaboration on difference in standing in society is something you find in many Buñuel movies. There’s for example more than one film elaborating on the lives of chambermaids and how they deal with their wealthy boss‘ romantic or sexual approaches. Here we also have only people that well-off, but an extreme situation reduces them to simpletons again, people without any privilege. There is nobody below them in this scenario, nobody they are really directly in touch with, even if I was wondering about the employees we see early on where they went to, but oh well. In any case, there was of course a recent film from Sweden that won big in Cannes that dealt with an in the widest sense similar scenario and also brought a slight touch of claustrophobia like this one here, even if it is never a truly defining aspect for both movies, but it shows that over half a century later this is still an issue that serves as the basis for really good movies.

Anyway, this one here has rich folks celebrating and eating together in some mansion, but the they cannot get out of the place. We see the moment the door is locked very early on when one employee leaves and we do not really know why, but you could guess that he is just an aide, almost a servant, and thus does not belong there when the rich folks are humiliated and also the kitchen employees that make a pretty good deal of money, so are also not on the poor side. Admittedly, this moment when the door is locked is just in theory the moment when it all starts going wrong because the guests are not even present there, but it was alright for the audience as metaphor and foreshadowing. After that, all is fairly normal and we understand some of the guests have secrets from others as there are for example a man and a woman who are having an affair. At least the woman is married too. Nothing unusual there I suppose. They are waiting for people to go (to sleep), so they can exchange their affections without having to hide and maybe also sleep next to or even with each other. This was almost a running gag in this film that people were waiting for others to sleep, but there were so many guests that it would probably never happen that everybody is asleep at the same time, especially not those who plan on staying awake when all the others are asleep. A lost cause. There is a great deal of mystery also involved as it is always the case with Buñuel. We do not understand why the folks cannot leave and we also do not see them trying to get out with force. We do see them, however, make a hole in the wall in an attempt to reach a waterpipe, so they won’t die from thirst. Some people still act with reason and dignity when they say that the women (and children) shall drink first, while others are just greedy and cannot wait. Those are brought down to their instincts already at that point and standing in society plays virtually no role anymore as this aggravated Big Brother scenario has gone on just long enough.

Later on, we do get a look outside and understand that there is pretty much normalcy, even if people outside are wondering what is going on inside, but there are also no serious attempts to come to anybody’s rescue. They do not even know if people are in there and seems there have also no missing persons reports been filed? This is a bit odd as the people are in there for days already if not weeks and not only missing for an evening or so, but oh well. Or does time go slower outside? Inside, I can accept the oddities as it is all part of the premise, but outside I am not so sure. One reason why I am giving the film a relatively low rating is also the twist then that led to the solution and normalcy again, namely when one of the women inside comes up with the plan that they just have to reenact the moment before it all went wrong with time, dimensions or maybe even some black hole. They reenact it indeed and then it returns back to normal, but I did not like this twist because I felt it did not make sense that somebody would come up with this idea, I also felt that it did not make sense as the solution and most of all it did not make sense because how would they even remember who was standing where doing what and besides it was also impossible, even if they knew, to truly reenact this in a perfect way for them to really trick time. But yeah, maybe the reason is not something to look for in this Buñuel film or in his films in general. I still cannot overlook how little it did for me. As the review is coming to an end, let me say that there were also a few animals included like sheep and these come back at the very end again in this church scene that had the protagonists reunited and maybe it was supposed to show that all the characters and humanity in general are just blind/stupid sheep and always rely on their surroundings and maybe even the mercy of nature or God. It is all speculation. There is no definite or 100% correct interpretation for this movie. A young bear is in here too, apparently brought by one of the female characters to pull a prank or so, but in the end it just results in more mayhem.

I am not sure if this is a film that will make you laugh, but maybe during its crasser moments it can here and there, like when one character is really expressive verbally in telling another how much she stinks after spending all these days in the house. There was at least one person in the audience who found this really funny, but I myself rather thought of something else there, like for example how not only the smelly person (who surely was by far not the only one with a certain body odor at that point) was reduced back to their origins, but also the one who says it because otherwise his good manners would have forbidden him if it wasn’t such an extreme situation. I mean even the ones who put him in his place afterwards do not deny his words. They only say that it is not an appropriate way to express yourself. Oh and did the people in this chamber die, the couple we see on one occasion? I am not sure if they were a romantic couple or what happened there exactly, but did they pick suicide? The film title of course makes it sound very religious, very apocalyptic even, so it would make sense if they did. But yeah, thanks to the aforementioned idea that saves everybody (or does it?) and makes sure they can get out again and defeat this glimpse in time, they do not end up in the house dead and eaten by the bear or so. Overall, I give the film a thumbs-down and I am also glad it was not a very long movie, even if it ran for over 1.5 hours, but Buñuel also directed films that went for ten minutes longer or even more. Two-hour films were not his thing though. I also feel like the quantity of characters in this film/house was just too much. As a consequence, not really any of them get a proper elaboration or presentation where we in the audience understand who they are and manage to develop an interest. I assume this was always more about the scenario, but it wasn’t good enough for me and I wish I could have gotten to know the characters a little better. So yeah, as I stated earlier, I think this film is very much on the overseen (in the sense of „not underseen“ and not in the sense of „overlooked“) side and also on the overrated side. My suggestion is to skip the watch or at least first focus on all the superior works Buñuel made throughout his career. Thumbs-down. You can also watch „La cabina“ instead.