The Exterminating Angel - Criterion Collection

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(4 stars) - Bunuel's masterpiece
Any movie been released by Criterion is an event. Luis Bunuel (not one of my favorites) gets the deluxe treatment his stature deserves with two new titles. The Exterminating Angel ($39.95; Criterion) is one of the surreal provocateur's most accessible works, the amusingly scathing (as opposed to tiresomely scathing, which is where I often find Bunuel resides) look at the upper class by showing a dinner party where the guests simply can't leave. It's like a Voltaire take on Twilight Zone, with this simple premise taken to its logical extreme. The film looks great and extras include a substantial documentary from 2008 featuring arguably the greatest screenwriter (and certainly the greatest adapter) of all time, Jean-Claude Carriere among others, plus some other new interviews. But that's one of his most famous titles. Who but Criterion would also put out Simon Of The Desert ($24.95; Criterion),a 45 minute short about a prophet who camps out on a pillar for six years, six months and six days to show his devotion to G-d only to be sorely tempted by the devil. Extras include interviews, essays and a 1997 documentary. Visit me at michaelgiltz dot com.

(5 stars) - A Great Treatment for a True Masterpiece
Althought some critics consider "The Exterminating Angel" as a lesser work in the extraordinary filmography made by Luis Buñuel in Mexico, the film represents one of the greatest moments of the mexican cinematography. Made under the difficult circumstances surrounding the dawn of Mexican Film Industry's Golden Age, "The Exterminating Angel" was the very last feature-lenght film made by Buñuel in Mexico before his last (and spectacular) French stage that includes films like "Belle de jour" and "That Obscure Object of Desire".

Criterion Collection has given "The Exterminating Angel" the treatment of a true masterpiece. Not only the sound and image qualities are superb, but the movie includes the complete version of a scene that was "edited" in many copies of "The Exterminating Angel" that were shown from the 1970s to 1990s. The "edited" version (apparently cut by producer Gustavo Alatriste himself) eliminated the double entrance of the Nobiles and their guests to the dinner party, at the beginning of the film. That repeated action set the tone of the entire film, in which repetitions and coincidences are very important, but can be easily (and wrongly) taken as an continuity error, not as a surreal joke of the great Buñuel.

Disc 2 includes a new documentary (Remembering Luis Buñuel) featuring screenwriter and Buñuel's friend Jean-Claude Carrière, and director Juan Luis Buñuel, the son of "The Genius of Calanda", that is a great adition to the many other documentaries made about this great spanish-mexican director.

(2 stars) - Claustrophobic puppet-show.
"The Exterminating Angel is a caustic lampoon of society's ruling class, the bourgeoisie, as they are called in Marxist theory. These are the people who owe their comfortable and privileged existence to their exploitation of the wage-earning classes. Because of their success in business or society, these people acquire a vaunted opinion of themselves and imagine their good fortune is due to some inherent superiority or God-sanctioned providence.

In this movie Luis Bunuel means to show these are false assumptions; that given the right circumstances these members of the upper crust are no better than any other grouping of humanity; that under conditions of privation and extreme stress, their animal nature will assert itself.

Surely this is not much of a surprise to anyone with some exposure to history and possessed of common sense. That is not to say an interesting story could not be created containing this premise, but the idea itself is hardly that original. The manner in which Bunuel progresses his film really doesn't give us anything with which we can view this concept in a way that seems fresher or more compelling.

In fact, it seemed to me to move very much in a b-movie fashion, with a stereotypical degeneration of behavior in these elite characters when they are deprived of amenities and are forced into constant companionship with one another. The situation where the characters are unable to leave a room may serve well to showcase their fallabilities, but on a matter-of-fact level seems contrived and unconvincing. I was never able to suspend disbelief that these people could simply walk out of their predicament.

Once I got the feeling that the whole situation was kind of silly, a severe case of boredom set in. There was simply nothing original or dynamic enough happening to hold my interest. It's true, Bunuel did insert some surreal lines of dialogue and visual symbols. But I hesitate to call the visual abnormalities, such as the sheep and the bear roaming the house anything other than incongruous to a real situation. It seemed to be either a heavy-handed lack of subtlety or something thrown in merely for supposed shock value.

According to what I learned from the commentary by his son and other movie-people, Bunuel sometimes inserted enigmatic things into his films "just because he felt like it" and was then amused when people tried to interpret them. It is also revealed that Bunuel kept his actors in the dark as to the big picture about his intentions, and had them perform each scene more or less in a vacuum, depending entirely on his directorial instructions to bring it off. Bunuel then assembled all these small discrete performances in the manner he wanted to construct his story.

I think this method shows through in this film. The characters do seem like pawns being shuffled to the places on the game board where the director wants them. There was, for me, no illusion of naturalness or spontaneity in this highly controlled, almost mechanistic presentation. Instead, I felt suffocated, not only by the claustrophobic confinement of the cast, but also by Bunuel's rigidity and single-mindedness.

I had watched two Bunuel films previously; "Los Olvidados" and "Simon of the Desert", both of which I thought were interesting and challenging in different ways. I watched "The Exterminating Angel" twice to make sure of my impression of it, and that will be enough for a lifetime.

(5 stars) - A completely absurd yet blatantly honest depiction of society's biggest flaw...
One of the most bizarre, yet extremely powerful films I've ever seen, `El Angel Exterminador' is a fantastic example of the artistic side of cinema. Controversial director Luis Bunuel delivers a tasty treat here; an abstract and macabre satire that is poignant even today in analyzing our modern society.

The film's prose is quite simple. A group of socialites get together after an Opera at a friends home for refreshments. For some reason the help has decided to leave the house, leaving these very dependant individuals to fend for themselves. As the night presses on it becomes apparent that no one is planning on leaving, and soon hours turn into days and these seemingly intelligent men and women are stuck in an open room, willingly refusing to leave yet not fully understanding why they are still there. The media goes into a frenzy yet no one is willing to enter the home, not for lack of trying.

For me, this was a brilliant take on societies growing lethargy. True, Bunuel was targeting the `upper-crust' of the time if you will, but his interpretation of their situation is very poignant for today's Americana. We live in a society where people grow accustomed to being cared for, plain and simple. It is no longer an issue of wealth as portrayed here though; people in general have become lazy. No one wants to work for a living anymore, and the ones that do work feel as though they are owed special penance for doing such. We cannot function without our cellular phones and our e-mail and our high-speed internet. We are not self sufficient, and Bunuel brilliantly depicts the downfall to such dependency. These `rich folk' could not function without their servants. They couldn't even walk into the kitchen and make a meal. In fact, they were reduced to savagery, waiting for their meal to come to them. Today we find ourselves paralyzed if we lose power, if only for an hour.

Bunuel's masterpiece was truly ahead of its time, for it presented to the audience a very realistic depiction of our current state of affairs.

The performances by the cast are all strong, if not unimportant. Everyone is solid, no one stands out, and that is really how it should be. This is not a story about any particular individual but about a growing crisis within humankind. Thus, having each character somewhat melt into the next adds layers to the films statement that individuality is lost within our abrasive apathy. We are all essentially the same when we lose the power to decide for ourselves.

Some will not get this film, and you may be one of them, so don't feel so bad if you walk away hating this movie. It is bizarre and completely unlike anything you've ever witnessed before, and at times the film can see overly ambitious or deliberately `art house', which I know a lot of people have a problem with; but honestly, nothing about this film is anything short of blatant honesty. I for one am impressed with Bunuel's vision, and his delivery (the same ambiguous delivery I faulted `Belle de Jour' for works marvelously here) is nothing short of appropriate and unforgettable.

(5 stars) - Great service and product
Product delivered promptly and as asked. Great movie and price. Would definitely use vendor again.

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