Exterminating Angel, The ( ángel exterminador, El ) Movie Information

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Movie Information

Overall Rank: 633

Average Rating: 3.1/4

# of Ratings: 53

Theatrical Release Date: 12/16/1962

Blu-ray/DVD Release Date: 02/10/2009

Language: Spanish

Genre: Drama, Fantasy

MPAA Rating: NR

Director: Luis Buñuel

Actors: Silvia Pinal, Enrique Rambal, Jacqueline Andere, Antonio Bravo, Claudio Brook, José Baviera

Plot: A group of people attending an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave the room. As time passes, they degenerate into near animals in order to survive. -- Chris Kavan

Logan D. McCoy - wrote on 06/17/2019

One of Luis Buñuel's most well-known (if not his MOST well-known) surrealist satires, "The Exterminating Angel" is as bizarre and morbid as it is challenging to digest.

mitchellyoung - wrote on 11/05/2011

This is a full-fledged attack on the upper class, brilliantly realized through satirical dialogue and situations. The plot itself is incidental - as we are never given a full explanation for what causes the mental imprisonment of the characters. I wouldn't at all call this a comedy, as many do - more of a psychological drama with fantasy.

woody - wrote on 02/01/2011

This movie is such an unusually structured story that I feared it would not stand the test of time for me. I saw it for the first time when I was in my twenties. It seemed offbeat and cool. When I nervously cranked it up again for the first time in years, I loved it just as much as I had before--more. It is audacious and impudent, but entertainingly so. If you haven't seen it before, just don't expect anything. It will not ever be what you expect. And try to catch it on the fine Criterion version.

Daniel Corleone
Movie God

The Exterminating Angel review

Daniel Corleone - wrote on 01/28/2013

"Life is amusing...and strange." Señor Edmundo Nobile and his wife, Lucia host a party. For some unexplained reason the people invited are trapped in a room. This felt like 12 Angry Men since the setting with lots of characters were in just one room. Some figures were likable, a few were fillers. The plot keeps you engaged from the beginning and the plush behaviors and peculiar acts keeps you guessing until the end.

Performances were authentic and screenplay was extravagantly provocative with lines: "No one seems to behave logically." "I believe the common people, the lower class people, are less sensitive to pain. Haven't you ever seen a wounded bull? Not a trace of pain." and "The help becomes more impertinent each day." Only minor weak-points were the lack of an interesting …

Jeremy
Producer

Maybe Bunuel's best?

Jeremy - wrote on 03/05/2011

A film that perfectly characterizes everything that is Luis Bunuel, The Exterminating Angel is a full fronted attack against the society which he despised. From the beginning, we see a group of dinner guests who emanate superficiality and constantly flaunt their wealth. They appear to hold their manners at a high value, but Bunuel reveals the hidden truth of their evil. The dinner guests find themselves inexplicably unable to leave a room for days on end. We see their facade of grace disintegrate before our eyes as we see the reality of their nature. They are sick, violent, hateful, sacrilegious, and immoral beings. Without the luxury of their wealth, the upper class is shown to be a despicable group who care nothing for the well being of anyone but themselves.

The …