Post by sciwriter on Jun 16, 2006 15:09:13 GMT -7
Recently I saw Luis Bunuel’s “Exterminatiing
Angel” on a classics movies channel on cable TV. I offer the following analysis which is different than the viewer comments shown below:
IMO Bunuel attempts to show that attempts to liberate humanity in the developed world in the 20th century failed, producing ruling classes entrapped by their self-indulgence, restrictions, class consciousness and sheep-like conformity. Keep in mind that
When the movie was
produced, the following “revolutionary” systems failed:
Stalin’s and Mao’s Communism in Soviet Union and Red China, respectively
Hitler’s Nazism in Germany
Mussolini’s Fascism in Italy
Franco’s Fascism—He reneged on earlier promises, and nationalized industry and taxed the Catholic Church heavily to rescue Spain’s economy
Also, Bunuel attempts to reconcile existentialism and Roman Catholicism by implying that God created absurdity of life to test humanity. To liberate themselves, humanity must pray to God and cope with absurdity. Mysticism such as
Freemasonry and the Kabbalah doesn’t work.
Comments?
Thanks. Carl
_________________________________
us.imdb.com/title/tt0056732/
Ángel exterminador, El (1962)
Directed by
Luis Buñuel
Also Known As:
The Exterminating Angel (USA)
Runtime: 95 min
Country: Mexico
Language: Spanish
Color: Black and White
Viewer comments:
A surrealist horror movie, of sorts; enjoyable for those who don't need movies to make total sense, 3 February 2005
Some upper-class people who have just attended an opera go to the home of one of their group for a dinner party. Before they get there, one of the staff is leaving. As they arrive, more of the staff feels a strong urge to leave. Ultimately, among the staff, only the butler remains.
After dinner, the guests don't leave; everyone crashes out on the furniture or floor. The next morning, people still do not leave, and they find they are unable to get themselves to leave, even though they do not want to stay and there is no physical object blocking their exit. Likewise, people outside cannot get themselves to enter the house.
The title, so far as I could tell, had no relation to anything in the movie.
Something of a surrealist horror movie, I quite enjoyed it. Best not to try to assign any symbolic meaning to it unintended by the director (as an opening note from the director states, more or less.)
__________________________________________________
Viewer comments:
www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/00/8/miff/bunuel.html
Luis Bunuel
As a surrealist, Bunuel's
desire was for revolution brought on by scandal. This meant levelling constant hostility towards the tyranny, hypocrisy, exploitation and injustice practiced by the institutions of organised society. "The real purpose of Surrealism", as he said, was "to explode the social order, to transform life itself." Despite the 'public call to assassination' of his films and the Surrealist movement, Buñuel remained convinced of Surrealist claims to morality. This was a morality, however, which bore little resemblance to traditional bourgeois, Christian values. As such, the expression of this revolutionary morality in Buñuel's films remains still rich and still vital.
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
The sound of a tolling church bell prefaces the bizarre events
that are to unfold at a Mexican estate on Providence Street.
An aristocrat appropriately named Nobilé (Enrique Rambal)
has invited several society friends to his home after the opera.
But even as the dinner preparations are underway, the
servants feel an inexplicable urge to leave the premises.
Despite the threat of dismissal, an anxious footman, Lucas
(Ángel Merino), is the first to leave. As the guests arrive and
ascend the staircase to deposit their overcoats for the evening,
two more servants attempt to escape, only to turn back when
the guests emerge from the room. Or do they? Curiously, the
entrance scene of the guests is repeated from a higher camera
angle, and this time, the servants successfully escape.
Repetitive patterns emerge. Nobilé toasts Sylvia (Rosa Elena Durgel) on her operatic performance, and is joined in the celebration by the attentive audience. The camera pans to the idle gossip of the guests, then cuts back to Nobilé, whose toast is now ignored amidst the conversational din of the preoccupied guests.
As the hors d'oeuvres are served, the waiter accidentally drops the tray. The hypocritical guests exuberantly applaud the unusual presentation as "entertainment". The rest of the dinner passes without incident. Inevitably, the guests migrate to an adjoining parlor to continue with their empty conversation. Two men focus their attention on the beautiful "Valkyrie" (Silvia Pinal), rumored to be a virgin. Several familiar guests, including two lovers engaged to be married, Beatriz (Ofelia Montesco) and Eduardo (Xavier Masse), go through the pretense of introducing themselves to each other. Blanca (Patricia de Morelos), a terminally ill pianist, passionately kisses her attending physician (Augusto Benedico), and the doctor reveals to the other guests that she will soon grow bald. A pregnant woman named Rita (Patricia Morán) casually alludes to the questionable paternity of her baby in front of her equally dispassionate husband.
The hours pass. The people yawn and stretch out in exhaustion, yet no one leaves. And so the unusual charade continues, as the guests make their way towards the open hallway of the entrance, hesitate, and find a reason or excuse to stay. Despite their mutual realization that they have clearly overstayed their welcome, no one wants to bear the distinction of being the first person to leave the dinner party. The veneer of civility erodes as desperation and distrust set in, and inevitably, the guests turn against their accommodating host, blaming him for their absurd, self-induced captivity.
Luis Buñuel uses his signature sardonic humor and surrealist imagery as instruments of social indictment in The Exterminating Angel. In an environment defined by etiquette instead of humanity, Buñuel exposes the underlying artifice and hypocrisy of civilized society. In essence, it is the burden of the guests to perform the meaningless, Sisyphean rituals dictated by their privileged class: the repetitive introductions, the polite acceptance of social invitations, and the perpetuation of self-indulgent dinner parties. However, it is also the passive comfort of their social status that creates their exclusive isolation and complacent inertia.
But why cannot the guests simply leave? The odd situation seems to result from an inherent fear of individual exposure. During the first evening, upon seeing that some guests have the audacity to remove their dinner jackets, Nobilé tells his wife to follow their improper behavior and take off their own jackets in order to "attenuate the incorrectness." In essence, by not taking the initiative to leave, the guests are attenuating the incorrectness of their own polite behavior (and that of their host), and no one will break etiquette and lead them to the door. The fear of committing a social faux pas far outweighs their desire to leave, and the guests become trapped in the absurdity of their own social correctness.
The Exterminating Angel is a visually stunning, richly symbolic, and subtly allegorical tale on the nature of human behavior. Through a claustrophobic examination of masters without servants, Luis Buñuel strips the façade of all social pretense and exposes the fundamentally base, instinctual, and primal behavior innate in the human soul. What separates man from beast? According to Buñuel, the answer lies in the freedom of the animals.
Angel” on a classics movies channel on cable TV. I offer the following analysis which is different than the viewer comments shown below:
IMO Bunuel attempts to show that attempts to liberate humanity in the developed world in the 20th century failed, producing ruling classes entrapped by their self-indulgence, restrictions, class consciousness and sheep-like conformity. Keep in mind that
When the movie was
produced, the following “revolutionary” systems failed:
Stalin’s and Mao’s Communism in Soviet Union and Red China, respectively
Hitler’s Nazism in Germany
Mussolini’s Fascism in Italy
Franco’s Fascism—He reneged on earlier promises, and nationalized industry and taxed the Catholic Church heavily to rescue Spain’s economy
Also, Bunuel attempts to reconcile existentialism and Roman Catholicism by implying that God created absurdity of life to test humanity. To liberate themselves, humanity must pray to God and cope with absurdity. Mysticism such as
Freemasonry and the Kabbalah doesn’t work.
Comments?
Thanks. Carl
_________________________________
us.imdb.com/title/tt0056732/
Ángel exterminador, El (1962)
Directed by
Luis Buñuel
Also Known As:
The Exterminating Angel (USA)
Runtime: 95 min
Country: Mexico
Language: Spanish
Color: Black and White
Viewer comments:
A surrealist horror movie, of sorts; enjoyable for those who don't need movies to make total sense, 3 February 2005
Some upper-class people who have just attended an opera go to the home of one of their group for a dinner party. Before they get there, one of the staff is leaving. As they arrive, more of the staff feels a strong urge to leave. Ultimately, among the staff, only the butler remains.
After dinner, the guests don't leave; everyone crashes out on the furniture or floor. The next morning, people still do not leave, and they find they are unable to get themselves to leave, even though they do not want to stay and there is no physical object blocking their exit. Likewise, people outside cannot get themselves to enter the house.
The title, so far as I could tell, had no relation to anything in the movie.
Something of a surrealist horror movie, I quite enjoyed it. Best not to try to assign any symbolic meaning to it unintended by the director (as an opening note from the director states, more or less.)
__________________________________________________
Viewer comments:
www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/00/8/miff/bunuel.html
Luis Bunuel
As a surrealist, Bunuel's
desire was for revolution brought on by scandal. This meant levelling constant hostility towards the tyranny, hypocrisy, exploitation and injustice practiced by the institutions of organised society. "The real purpose of Surrealism", as he said, was "to explode the social order, to transform life itself." Despite the 'public call to assassination' of his films and the Surrealist movement, Buñuel remained convinced of Surrealist claims to morality. This was a morality, however, which bore little resemblance to traditional bourgeois, Christian values. As such, the expression of this revolutionary morality in Buñuel's films remains still rich and still vital.
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
The sound of a tolling church bell prefaces the bizarre events
that are to unfold at a Mexican estate on Providence Street.
An aristocrat appropriately named Nobilé (Enrique Rambal)
has invited several society friends to his home after the opera.
But even as the dinner preparations are underway, the
servants feel an inexplicable urge to leave the premises.
Despite the threat of dismissal, an anxious footman, Lucas
(Ángel Merino), is the first to leave. As the guests arrive and
ascend the staircase to deposit their overcoats for the evening,
two more servants attempt to escape, only to turn back when
the guests emerge from the room. Or do they? Curiously, the
entrance scene of the guests is repeated from a higher camera
angle, and this time, the servants successfully escape.
Repetitive patterns emerge. Nobilé toasts Sylvia (Rosa Elena Durgel) on her operatic performance, and is joined in the celebration by the attentive audience. The camera pans to the idle gossip of the guests, then cuts back to Nobilé, whose toast is now ignored amidst the conversational din of the preoccupied guests.
As the hors d'oeuvres are served, the waiter accidentally drops the tray. The hypocritical guests exuberantly applaud the unusual presentation as "entertainment". The rest of the dinner passes without incident. Inevitably, the guests migrate to an adjoining parlor to continue with their empty conversation. Two men focus their attention on the beautiful "Valkyrie" (Silvia Pinal), rumored to be a virgin. Several familiar guests, including two lovers engaged to be married, Beatriz (Ofelia Montesco) and Eduardo (Xavier Masse), go through the pretense of introducing themselves to each other. Blanca (Patricia de Morelos), a terminally ill pianist, passionately kisses her attending physician (Augusto Benedico), and the doctor reveals to the other guests that she will soon grow bald. A pregnant woman named Rita (Patricia Morán) casually alludes to the questionable paternity of her baby in front of her equally dispassionate husband.
The hours pass. The people yawn and stretch out in exhaustion, yet no one leaves. And so the unusual charade continues, as the guests make their way towards the open hallway of the entrance, hesitate, and find a reason or excuse to stay. Despite their mutual realization that they have clearly overstayed their welcome, no one wants to bear the distinction of being the first person to leave the dinner party. The veneer of civility erodes as desperation and distrust set in, and inevitably, the guests turn against their accommodating host, blaming him for their absurd, self-induced captivity.
Luis Buñuel uses his signature sardonic humor and surrealist imagery as instruments of social indictment in The Exterminating Angel. In an environment defined by etiquette instead of humanity, Buñuel exposes the underlying artifice and hypocrisy of civilized society. In essence, it is the burden of the guests to perform the meaningless, Sisyphean rituals dictated by their privileged class: the repetitive introductions, the polite acceptance of social invitations, and the perpetuation of self-indulgent dinner parties. However, it is also the passive comfort of their social status that creates their exclusive isolation and complacent inertia.
But why cannot the guests simply leave? The odd situation seems to result from an inherent fear of individual exposure. During the first evening, upon seeing that some guests have the audacity to remove their dinner jackets, Nobilé tells his wife to follow their improper behavior and take off their own jackets in order to "attenuate the incorrectness." In essence, by not taking the initiative to leave, the guests are attenuating the incorrectness of their own polite behavior (and that of their host), and no one will break etiquette and lead them to the door. The fear of committing a social faux pas far outweighs their desire to leave, and the guests become trapped in the absurdity of their own social correctness.
The Exterminating Angel is a visually stunning, richly symbolic, and subtly allegorical tale on the nature of human behavior. Through a claustrophobic examination of masters without servants, Luis Buñuel strips the façade of all social pretense and exposes the fundamentally base, instinctual, and primal behavior innate in the human soul. What separates man from beast? According to Buñuel, the answer lies in the freedom of the animals.