An absolute masterpiece. Feels 40 years ahead of its time with a premise that remains chillingly unique and original to this day.

1001 movies to see before you die. An impressive allegory, full of themes and frustrations of being stuck somewhere. I enjoyed it despite there being no real reason behind things. RUS.

I love that Buñuel takes these characters seriously while placing them in the most absurd of scenarios. This kind of consideration makes the satire more potent and I bet this movie still makes rich people angry.

Nobody has or ever will do surrealism like Luis Bunuel. The premise of The Exterminating Angel is pretty straightforward – a group of society's upper crust gather for an elaborate meal in an ornate mansion. However, when it is time to depart, they find that they are unable to do so. There are no barriers stopping them – they simply cannot leave. From there, things get weird. Bunuel's message is clear pretty much from the get go and the satire is stinging throughout. For those who enjoy venturing into Bunuel's worlds of weirdness, The Exterminating Angel should be right up their alley. For those who like their films a little more straightforward, this one is one that should probably be avoided.

If anyone wonders why Spanish surrealist director Luis Buñuel spent decades mocking the bourgeoisie and the church, The Exterminating Angel is perhaps the film that comes closest to offering an explanation. Of course we always have to be careful applying any direct or allegorical message to a Buñuel movie. The director himself would probably find such interpretations amusing, as he does not directly tackle any subject matter. His movies are dream-like reveries, reflecting in a semi-conscious way his state of mind – his hopes, wishes, fears, loves and hates. As a caption explains at the beginning of The Exterminating Angel, "The best explanation of this film is that, from the standpoint of pure reason, there is no explanation." Still The Exterminating Angel does seem to capture in a symbolic manner an important strand in Buñuel's thinking, and it is hard to ignore this. Buñuel, an émigré who left his native country after the Spanish Civil War, had not forgiven the bourgeoisie or the church for their role in supporting Franco's Fascist administration. In Buñuel's movie, the bourgeoisie are trapped in an endless dinner party from which they cannot leave after the servants depart. Notably they only get to leave after the servants return. They are helpless without the proletarians whom they despise. Ironically, while Buñuel is often thought of as being a Communist, perhaps not accurately, The Exterminating Angel was banned in Russia, where the ruling regime saw the obvious parallels of a film about people who are unable to leave a party. Still this is not a humourless dissection of Spanish politics, but a film that also works on a literal level as a comedy of sorts. In a sense it is about the behaviour of the bourgeoisie following the Spanish Civil War, but more than that it is simply about a group of privileged and well-to-do people who find themselves trapped in an absurdist situation. It is appropriate that Buñuel should use a dinner party to express his themes. What could be more representative of the lives of the wealthy than having a dinner party? What activity could indicate normality and order more than a carefully-planned meal, with one course following another, and everyone observing the niceties of social etiquette? Indeed these privileged and pampered hedonists behave exactly as one might expect. The hosts are hard-hearted to the servants who say they need to leave early, and threaten to fire them. When a servant trips over and sends the food flying onto the floor, the guests laugh callously. There is no physical barrier or threat stopping anyone from leaving the house. Perhaps it only the weak will of the bourgeoisie that prevents them from going. If we wish to return to the possible symbolic message of the film, we might suggest that they are trapped by their own lethargy and inaction in the face of Fascism. The army bizarrely put a yellow flag over the entrance of the house as if it is quarantined. In black-and-white, this seems to resemble a flag of surrender. Indeed the house comes to reflect the condition of its guests, now its edifice is peeled away. Floorboards are torn up, pipes are burst and walls ripped open. A musician smashes up his instrument for firewood. All pretence of civilisation has gone. "Everything I've most hated since I was a child – rudeness, violence, filth – are now our inseparable companions," complains one guest. Along the way, Buñuel approaches the subject with his customary surrealism. Some scenes are improvised. The film is rife with continuity errors, which Buñuel included deliberately. This leads to some scenes being seemingly repeated, as if to reflect the cycle in which the guests are trapped. I wrote a longer appreciation of The Exterminating Angel on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2022/02/10/the-exterminating-angel-1962/

The surrealism and absurdity of this movie would be much less perplexing if you had watched Luis Buñuel's French movies. You would also probably ascertain that he has been essentially making the same film for over a decade. You can interpret many motifs in this film since the eventual reason for their entrapment is kept purposefully unclear. Could it be a rich-vanity bubble that can only be escaped by adherence to their inane, never-ending rituals? The facade of high society etiquette that becomes irrelevant the moment the rich have to break a wall to get water (or apparently, as it was originally planned, resort to cannibalism)? Varied jabs at Franco's regime in Spain? It can be all of it. The main point is that, in the end, no one learned anything. But aside from this metaphorical malarkey, is this story interesting to watch? I'd say yes. The short runtime of the movie and characters quickly acknowledging the absurdity of their situation help you not lose focus. Even if the first 15 minutes are just nameless figures greeting each other in purposeful scenes of repetition, followed by the practical survival of 20+ people in one room.

At first I thought this was one of those 1960s avant garde offerings that always bore me to death, but actually it's more like a ninety minute Twilight Zone episode. One of the good Twilight Zone episodes, in fact.

A little forced at times and over dramatic as films of this era are known to sometimes be, however, still a fun little comedic film that passes the time.

I can't pretend I understood this one. Seemed to start like an Edgar Allen Poe horror and ended kind of anti climatically. Never got to the bottom of it and by the end didn't care much. Started well and then dissipated.

What a boring , pointless movie..... I'm sorry I dozed off during this film...

I'm not sure why, but I really enjoy both thematically dense films with some sort of supernatural element, and films that feature groups of people trapped in a single location for whatever reason to simmer in their shared misfortune; taken together, The Exterminating Angel is a slam dunk. Though its explicit intent is open to interpretation, Buñuel singles out some of his favorite targets for a bout of supernatural suffering, particularly the aristocratic class (though he can't help but bring the church into it at a later point); his handling of the conditions surrounding his characters' internment is brilliantly simple, requiring no added effects or excess - they are simply trapped in the room by an irresistible urge, subdued at first, but growing in intensity to the point where it cannot be ignored. The director then takes his time stripping away the veneer of respectability and class in social crusade, and with a style not unlike that of Lord of the Flies; allowing suppressed grievances to gradually be aired as the situation deteriorates. Caviar gets replaced with water from a burst pipe and sheep roasted over the remains of a cello. Biting stuff, but Buñuel takes care to leave the specific circumstances of a general criticism of the upper crust open to interpretation. And what an ending, with so many questions posed in the final scene. Such a great way to conclude a science fiction-esque surrealist threat, leaving the criteria for its activation vague, and the threat still very present. Buñuel's process must have caught the attention of animal rights groups by the '60s - the violence against his barnyard actors is only implied this time around. (4/5)

Not only the drama, but the suspense and the mystery wraps the audience to the next level in this Luis Buñuel's remarkable film.

Reflexão em época de confinamento.

A fun and creative idea, with awesome characters and images. I loved it. I will admit that at times I got a little claustrophobic watching it, but nothing that wasn't easily overcome by some patience.

A bit confusing at the beginning. But confusion is the weapon of this film. Which ends in absolute thrill.

The Exterminating Angel is a weird, surreal film about how the aristocratic class is literally incapable of exiting its own little world and how it then becomes increasingly wretched. Bunuel was the rare artist whose work got more daring with age.

Obviously serving as symbolism for what was occurring in Spain in the early 1960s, Brunel's film serves as satire of the most interesting sort. The film falls short in its ability to hold interest apart from its primary premise.

Buñuel tidak hanya berfantasi, tetapi juga bermain dengan segala simbolisasi dan kritik-kritik terpendam, seperti yang pernah coba dijelaskan Roger Ebert. Saya cukup mengagumi orisinalitas Buñuel yang berhasil membuat saya jengkel sepanjang film.

This is the worst shit ive ever seen. wtf are u people smoking???

"I adore things which go out of the ordinary," one of the ladies says, perhaps a reflection of what the audience is thinking. The problem with most absurdities and farces is that they deal with some ridiculous situation which we either buy or don't buy. Here, the situation is a mystery, servants suddenly leaving, everyone engaging in a giant slumber party, which is out of order for these people. There's a bear and sheep in the house, a dead chicken in a purse. A man is unconscious, dying perhaps. "What's happening to us?" Doctor asks right before a thunderstorm. It's intriguing, something is in the air and we don't know what it is, it's a total mystery. It could be equally satisfying if we never find out. Everything that once was sexy is now disgusting. These people are filthy, un showered, their backends probably a mess. Where once we could picture a fairly sexy upper-class orgy, now we dream of escaping from one another. The film is relentless, almost never letting go of the ever-increasing tension that drives these characters to madness. We wonder to ourselves if there was something we missed - did they get trapped? Barricaded by the people on the outside? How did they suddenly start showing up? Revelations come in the form of degenerating behavior while questions continue to be raised. At no point do I lose interest in what's happening while still dying for answers, a perfect blend of engaging in experience while needing to know. We reach our most savage point when sheep are slaughtered, a dead couple are laughed at, and a royal rumble breaks out. We wonder what satisfying solution could possibly come about, and most ideas that go through my head are unsatisfying. But Bunuel works the unexpected, re-staging everyone exactly as they were before this mysterious curse trapped everyone. One of the women is able to identify this, trying to guide everyone to retrace their steps until they can figure out what locked them in the first place - she equates the exercise to chess. Eventually they stumble on a point in which someone declared it was time to retire, which seemed to generate a compulsive etiquette that resulted in the ensuing problem. Time and space is a constant distortion - the couple thinks they've been their around a month, one of the ladies thinks they were at the opera "tonight." The room seems to change positions. The rest of the mansion becomes forbidden, they are locked in one space. A black curtain forms, the homeowner on the other side. Where exactly does the painting door lead to? Bathroom? Where is the bathroom anyway? Sheep go upstairs, but arrive in the room where everyone is for their sacrifice.