MUBI brings you a great new film every day.  Start your 7-day free trial today!
Watch a new film every day for $4.99.
Try MUBI for FREE.
 

The Exterminating Angel

El ángel exterminador

Mexico

1962

94 Min
Black and White
1.33:1
Spanish
  • Currently 4.4/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

   |   

DIR Luis Buñuel

SCR Luis Buñuel

DP Gabriel Figueroa

CAST Silvia Pinal, Enrique Rambal, Lucy Gallardo, Claudio Brook, José Baviera, Augusto Benedico, Antonio Bravo, Jacqueline Andere, Enrique García Alvarez, César del Campo, Rosa Elena Durgel

ED Carlos Savage

PROD DES Jesús Bracho

MUSIC Raúl Lavista

SOUND José B. Carles

Cannes (In Competition), New York (Opening Night), New York (Homage), Melbourne, Berlinale (Retrospective), New York (Anniversary Screenings), New York

Synopsis

A group of bourgeois cosmopolitans are invited to a mansion for dinner and inexplicably find themselves unable to leave, in Luis Buñuel’s daring masterpiece The Exterminating Angel. Made just one year after his international sensation Viridiana, this is a furthering of Buñuel’s wicked takedown of the rituals and dependencies of the frivolous upper classes, full of eerie and hilarious absurdity. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Original

Luis Buñuel

Although regarded as the greatest artist of Spanish cinema Luis Buñuel only made three films that are Spanish by nationality. His exile from his homeland at the end of the Spanish Civil War resulted in extended periods in Mexico and France. Despite this displacement, Spain was never far from Buñuel’s mind. The peasant culture of the villages of Calanda and Zaragoza, many of them dating to the Middle-Ages, greatly influenced his imagination during his childhood. The Spanish literary tradition, represented by Lope de Vega, Cervantes and the writers of picaresque stories, remained constant touchstones. Strongest of all was the distinctly Spanish nature of his Catholicism; he would retain its influence long after he renounced the teachings of the Church. At the University of Madrid his friendship with poet Federico Garcia Lorca and painter Salvador Dalí would play a major role in the avant-garde of the 1920s. It was during this period that he discovered the works of Sigmund Freud. His insight… read more

Wall

Displaying 4 of 53 wall posts.
Picture of Robert Waeck

Robert Waeck

7May13

Fun stuff.

Picture of Federico Di Folco

Federico Di Folco

30Mar13

Geniale.Uno dei rari casi in cui significati molto profondi e complessi si uniscono ad una tecnica semplice ed efficace.Si stimola la riflessione senza annoiare. Bunuel ci mostra cosa succerebbe all umanità se si trovasse a vivere in spazi troppo ristretti e affollati oppure in una società con convenzioni sociali troppo opprimenti:sarebbe una lenta regressione verso la barbarie intrisa di spiccato individualismo.5*

Picture of Stefania Cecconi

Stefania Cecconi

28Jan13

Il mio film preferito. Dopo una sera a teatro, degli eleganti borghesi, riuniti a cena nella sontuosa villa dei Nobile, non trovano più la forza di uscire... Ne L’Angelo sterminatore troviamo una tematica ricorrente della poetica buñueliana, ovvero quella dell’impossibilità di soddisfare un semplice desiderio, nel caso specifico quello di uscire da una stanza.

Picture of A47

A47

18Jan13

I love the idea of this film so much more than the film itself. I love the ideas contained within it even more. The great house-drama of the mind.

kucukbirisi and jannicke like this

Related Films

Fans

Displaying 5 of 1909 fans.

Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

Movie Poster of the Week: The Posters of the First New York Film Festival

By Adrian Curry on September 21, 2012

As the NYFF celebrates its 50th year, a look at the posters from the films that made up its first incarnation in 1963.

read article
W184

Notebook's 4th Writers Poll: Fantasy Double Features of 2011

By Notebook on January 3, 2012

In our annual poll, we pair our favorite new films of 2011 with older films seen in the same year to create fantastic double features.

read article
W184

Venice 2011. Last Stop: Brooklyn

By Daniel Kasman on September 2, 2011

Two couples, one apartment in Brooklyn, an 18 year-old single malt Scotch and Roman Polanski.

read article
W184

The Auteurs Daily: Cineaste

By David Hudson on August 25, 2009

"The desire for a critical framework capable of both political acumen and esthetic incisiveness is at the heart of Cineaste's project

read article
Blank

The Forgotten: Tightening the Screws

By David Cairns on April 16, 2009

Thanks to Natalia Caballero for introducing me to the work of Luis Garcia Berlanga. The Executioner. It doesn't sound much like the title

read article
W184

The Forgotten: Skeleton Quay

By David Cairns on March 5, 2009

  DR. LIVINGSKELETON, I PRESUME?   The Living Skeleton is a lot of fun, or at least, that was my experience, or I think it was

read article
Blank

The Forgotten: The Slaves of Solitude

By David Cairns on February 26, 2009

HOW TO FORGET The erosion of a reputation— The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1935) is an unusual film, but we'll come to that. It affected

read article

Lists

Displaying 5 of 442 lists.

Reviews

Displaying 4 of 5

a cinematic question mark

By Musycks on April 26, 2012

A beautiful question mark of a film, it examines the mores and conventions of what it is that sets humankind apart from the animal kingdom, and simultaneously shows that we are not removed from it…  read review

El oso comunista y sus corderos

By Rafael Paz on February 26, 2010

Observar El ángel exterminador (1962) de Luis Buñuel es confrontar a la burguesía con su presente, entorno, costumbres y desenvolvimiento hacia las demás personas.

  read review

Untitled

By Lucas Granero on August 31, 2009

Intento para una crítica de “El Angel Exterminador”.

1.
Vi la pelicula una noche de domingo. Y esto no es un dato menor, sino mas bien todo la contrario. Los domingos por lo general uno…  read review

Untitled

By Teddy Cheong on April 25, 2009

Bunuel is the great equalizer. His work has had a way of putting people and institutions in their place as if to proclaim they aren’t above anyone or thing. And Exterminating Angel only exemplifies…  read review

Forum

Displaying 2 discussion topics.

Paradisi sonata

1 post by 1 person over 3 years ago

Second disc

12 posts by 8 people over 4 years ago

DVD

Buy the DVD from The Criterion Collection.