"The Exterminating Angel" begins with the preparation for a dinner party; yet one of the first things we see are the cooks and servants leaving for some unexplained reason, the only one that's left is the waiter who dutifully stays for the duration. The guests arrive after attending the opera, they then arrive again in the exact same way. I must admit, when I first saw this film, and watching the scene when the guests arrive, I felt I was suffering from deja vu, but when I watched it again, I realized this was on purpose and my mind wasn't playing tricks on me; it was rather a subtle surreal moment that fits into the tapestry with the rest of the movie.
The dinner begins, but the hostess is upset that her servants are leaving with no good excuse, it's almost as if they know something no one else knows. The dinner is served without much annoyance, and it is a success; the guests soon adjourn to the living room. We observe the people in their surroundings as they talk to each other, most of it stays rather superficial and unimportant, it remains very high brow and pleasant. However, once might notice that throughout this polite conversation, there are slight underlining moments of cruelty in it all. There is mention of a woman who is dying of cancer, and pretty soon she will go bald, another guest says what a shame it is since she had such a nice set of hair.
Pretty soon the night is winding down and it comes time for everyone to leave, but they all seem to find reasons to stay in the room. Pretty soon, they end up spending the night, with some onlookers noticing how rude and presumptuous some people are by taking off their jackets and lying down on sofas. In the morning, the hostess feels inconvenienced, realizing she must now serve breakfast for her now unwanted guests, but by now it has become obvious; everyone is incapable of leaving, they are stuck behind some unseen barrier within the living room. What they really are is at the mercy of director Luis Bunuel who seems to have sprung a trap for them.
"The Exterminating Angel" is many things at once, it's a scathing satire on the social upper class, a survival story, a supernatural mystery, and a study on the decline of a civilized society. Luis Bunuel directed this film, and he always had a firm handle on biting satire and surreal moments, both of which are figured in perfectly with this film. Here Bunuel is at his sinister best playing with these people as if they were rats in a cage, but what he's actually doing is exposing them for who they truly are and stripping away the confines of their class.
As the film moves along, the mood suddenly changes to desperation and fear. Outside the mansion, a vigil is being kept, police are brought in to investigate, yet no one seems to be able to enter the home; whatever is keeping the guests in is also keeping the rest of the people out.
It's uncertain as to the time lapse the people spend in the living room, but we assume that the days turn to weeks as they get more and more agitated and paranoid. An axe is used to chop through the wall at one point in order for them to get to the water pipes, the older and weaker ones are starting to die off, a pair of lovers end up killing themselves in private, while others are turning to madness. There is an inventive dream hallucination sequence where a woman sees a dismembered hand coming out from a closet and attacks her; she tries to stab it, only to wake up realizing it's the hand of another woman. Pretty soon things turn to anarchy and mob rule as they plot to kill the host who they believe is responsible for everything.
There are a lot of films like this one in the sense that they show a once civilized class decline into such a primal nature, but Bunuel has much more sinister ideas in mind, he's not only exposing the social hypocrisy with the ruling class, but he's also attacking their way of life. The social etiquette which plays such an important ritualistic role in their every day world is the key behind the whole mystery, and the reveal when you think about it is such a darkly comic punchline.
But Bunuel does not let these people off the hook, probably because he's having too much fun at these their expense. Once the guests are freed from one trap, they inevitably fall into another one caused by their reliance on their own class rules. There seems to be a glee from Bunuel in showing this kind of hypocrisy where people follow a certain set of moral rules or obligations, yet when they are stripped away from them, they are shown with very little morality.
Luis Bunuel was one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he started off with controversy with his first film "Un Chien Andelou", and also his follow-up "L'Age Dore". Both films he collaborated with celebrated surrealist Salvadore Dali, but both were also about this wanting to break free and embrace your own inhibitions. "L'Age Dore" in particular showed this type of discontent with everyday rules with a devilish sense of humour. "The Exterminating Angel" was at the height of Bunuel's powers, he was in his sixties, but he was never more popular or prolific.
I myself have only seen a handful of Bunuel's films, but I would argue those I have seen are all great some ranking among my favorites. I take great joy in a filmmaker such as Bunuel, who seems to expose life's phoniness and that freedom from these types of class structures can be liberating. You can't help but laugh gleefully at the end of "The Exterminating Angel", once the mystery is solved, the curse is broken, and all is revealed, it's one big joke, but it's such a satisfactory punchline.
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