As I noted earlier when writing about Los Olvidados, Luis Buñuel is remembered more for his surrealist works and this pick, The Exterminating Angel, is a fine example of that. The strangeness of the situation here doesn’t take long to show up either. The setting is a lavish dinner party in a huge mansion, one so luxuriously appointed that it looks impressive even today. Yet even before the dinner party starts getting underway, the servants beg permission to go off one by one, each for unrelated and trivial reasons until only the majordomo is left. We also see that there is inexplicably a herd of sheep and a small bear inside the house. What’s even stranger is that some scenes seem to be repeat themselves, at least to us as the audience but the characters in the film never seem to notice anything.

Strangest of all of course is that after the dinner and everyone has retired to the salon to chitchat and relax, the guests seem to linger and never leave. At first, it seems innocuous. Perhaps they linger only because they’re enjoying each other’s company too much. But as the night grows late, the guests actually loosen their clothes and lie down to sleep, to the shock of the hosts. A couple who is about to be married look forward to being alone with each alone, yet never get around to leave either. By the time morning arrives, they are in a state of quiet panic. The hostess offers to bring the ladies to her dressing room to freshen up, yet they get distracted before they leave the room. The majordomo is surprised that the morning’s grocery delivery hasn’t arrived yet. Some of the guests fret over the children they left at home and their upcoming appointments but make no move to leave. What on Earth is going on?

In films like this, it’s natural for the audience to wonder whether this is all just a metaphor for something or if it is real at all. Maybe it’s just a dream or a prank or something similar. You certainly can’t stop yourself from watching to find out. But the film takes the scenario seriously and literally, even showing the scenes of the people who are confused as they are equally unable to step into the house. As the days and nights pass, the guests who are trapped inside become ever thirstier and hungrier. The formerly elegant clothes they wear become shabby and ragged. As they grow ever more desperate, the barriers of polite society break down and they contemplate performing barbaric deeds to survive.

Trying to search for some sense of meaning from this is only natural and there are many possible interpretations. The most trite one is the observation that at the margin, civilization means nothing and we are all reduced to brutes. It’s only possible that it’s some sort of veiled critique at religion, considering the title of the film and the final scene. Perhaps the brief sight we see at the end of a riot in progress is some allusion to the dictatorship of General Franco in Spain? Buñuel apparently always denied that there was any specific meaning intended. Critics have been skeptical but I think that it may be true that it is supposed to evoke a wide range of associations instead of having any ultimate interpretation. Certainly it is horrifying in a rather unique way. My wife and I joked about being trapped in our room after watching the film and I surmise that everyone who watched it in a cinema hall had the same thought touch their minds.

I can’t say that this film is a great favorite of mine but I can see why it has enduring value. You can’t help but be fascinated by its conceit and the execution is nothing short of impeccable. As morbid as it sounds, I even had a few laugh out loud moments with its dark sense of humor.