The Exterminating Angel has a simple enough premise. A group of high-society men and women gather for a dinner party, to find out at the end they cannot leave. Trapped together, over the course of a few days, they grow gradually more aggressive, confrontational and unsympathetic towards each other. Unfortunately, the films central device wasn’t interesting enough to hold my attention, and I couldn’t help thinking that as it went on Bunuel was running out of ideas.
The critique here is on the self-obsessed, arrogant upper-class. Pitted together the rules that define them come crashing down as they descend into frenzied arguments and near fist-fights, unable to unite together and leave the room, they simmer and boil in each others’ company. The obvious subplots follow, lack of food, water, a few sick people needing medical assistance (no matter, there’s the sturdy doctor at hand) until soon the same arguments and plot-points are repeated, the central comment has worn thin and there’s nothing left to care about on screen. The characters are inexplicably bland even after they’re stripped of their pomp and falseness, leaving the film emotionally empty.
The ending weakens the already tired message. Broadening his scope to include the church, is Bunuel suggesting that the church is just as hypocritical and uninviting as the upper class? It doesn’t really matter. When asked for an explanation on why the people cannot leave, Bunuel replied that there is no explanation. No doubt about that, masquerading as a sharp, surrealist twist it’s merely a shockingly obvious piece of narrative contrivance. Sadly my first foray into Bunuel was a disappointing one, and I can only hope that his other films are more involving and tightly-written.
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