Buñuel's 1962 masterpiece of bourgeoisie-baiting Freudian repression, 'The Exterminating Angel' is a Surrealist slaughterhouse.
A group of wealthy upper-class members of the bourgeoisie find themselves mysteriously trapped inside a house when attending a lavish dinner party. The doors are not locked and there is no logical reason why they cannot leave, yet they remain trapped like prisoners, and likewise, no one can enter (the flummoxed police are stationed outside, trying to work out how to save the rich people). Over the course of the film, the loathing and contempt that they really always felt for both themselves and one another comes bubbling to the rotten surface as they are slowly stripped of their status and pretensions, fighting over water, sleeping on the floor, and insulting one another as their hungry bodies begin to stink from the oppressive heat.
In this new world, the bourgeoisie's money and power are reduced to worthlessness. 'Anything but physical violence! This is not like us! Remember who you are, remember your upbringing!', a doctor exclaims, trying to break up a brawl, but this is a meaningless gesture -- here the rich are no better than anyone else, for even the servants and cooks had the earthy precognition to realise what was coming and depart at the start of the film, before the invisible padlocks manifested.
This film is a brilliant, incredibly funny example of Buñuel's career manifesto: the rich and powerful are nothing without their wealth, and in the absence of the poor they have no one to control or feel superior to. Take it all away and they become the human beings (ie. animals) that all people really are, deep down. The poor are more important to the rich than they ever realise.
A film like 'The Exterminating Angel' serves to remind us that, regardless of wealth, we are all trapped inside the frigid, repressive boxes of our own (and society's) creation, and a conscious decision to leave them on our own terms is nearly impossible.
A group of wealthy upper-class members of the bourgeoisie find themselves mysteriously trapped inside a house when attending a lavish dinner party. The doors are not locked and there is no logical reason why they cannot leave, yet they remain trapped like prisoners, and likewise, no one can enter (the flummoxed police are stationed outside, trying to work out how to save the rich people). Over the course of the film, the loathing and contempt that they really always felt for both themselves and one another comes bubbling to the rotten surface as they are slowly stripped of their status and pretensions, fighting over water, sleeping on the floor, and insulting one another as their hungry bodies begin to stink from the oppressive heat.
In this new world, the bourgeoisie's money and power are reduced to worthlessness. 'Anything but physical violence! This is not like us! Remember who you are, remember your upbringing!', a doctor exclaims, trying to break up a brawl, but this is a meaningless gesture -- here the rich are no better than anyone else, for even the servants and cooks had the earthy precognition to realise what was coming and depart at the start of the film, before the invisible padlocks manifested.
This film is a brilliant, incredibly funny example of Buñuel's career manifesto: the rich and powerful are nothing without their wealth, and in the absence of the poor they have no one to control or feel superior to. Take it all away and they become the human beings (ie. animals) that all people really are, deep down. The poor are more important to the rich than they ever realise.
A film like 'The Exterminating Angel' serves to remind us that, regardless of wealth, we are all trapped inside the frigid, repressive boxes of our own (and society's) creation, and a conscious decision to leave them on our own terms is nearly impossible.