My Favorite Luis Buñuel Film

It took me a long time to warm up to Luis Buñuel, one the most influential filmmakers in cinema history, the most notable purveyor of early Surrealist and absurdist films. I remember sitting through "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" for the first time in a state of stupefaction, completely unable to process what was going on. Since then, I've picked through much of the rest of his filmography, from the early collaborations with Salvador Dali to his later work in France in the 70s. There are still several of the major films I haven't seen yet, including the ones made during his self-imposed Mexican exile in the 50s. And I've learned to appreciate him, with the help of a lot of context provided by Criterion essays and interviews. Ironically, the one Buñuel film that I really love is often considered the counterpart to "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," - "The Exterminating Angel."

The premise of the film a simple, almost perverse idea. A group of upper class somebodies convene for a dinner party in a mansion, retire to a salon to listen to one of the ladies play the piano, and then discover that they are unable to leave the room. Some invisible force compels them to remain, though all of them want to leave. Also, no one can enter the house to rescue them or provide any supplies. As hours turn into days, and the guests run out of food and medicine, their civility crumbles. First it's minor breaches in decorum, then a complete breakdown of social rules and structure, a theme Buñuel would return to many times in his films. The guests tear up the walls of the room to get to water pipes, chant spells to appease angry spirits, and finally descend to the brink of savagery in their desperation.

There is never any explanation given for the imprisonment, only some coded hints regarding religion and social rituals. Perhaps the guests unknowingly tapped into some sinister cosmic "Twilight Zone" force by committing some seemingly inconsequential faux pas. The key to the mystery turns out to be repetition of certain mundane actions, which Buñuel cleverly works into the narrative of the film by including repeated lines and scenes and acts throughout, some instances more noticeable than others. What initially appear to be editing errors turn out to be clues to the logic of the film's universe. But unlike some of the more surreal Buñuel films, this one is narratively coherent and at no point are there any dream sequences or odd tangential scenes to confuse the reality of the events being presented. It's certainly one of Buñuel's most accessible pictures in spite of the surreal premise.

"The Exterminating Angel" is classified as satire by most, or even as a particularly black comedy. Made right after the firestorm of religious controversy that greeted "Viridiana," Buñuel's target this time is the upper classes. The guests at the dinner part are mostly terribly unsympathetic, portrayed as disconnected, insensitive, elitist snobs, who are useless in the face of crisis. The staff of the mansion quits the premises just before the dinner takes place, perhaps sensing the calamity to come, an instinct found wanting in the unfortunate guests. Left on their own, powerless and isolated, these supposedly civilized men and women repeatedly fail to cooperate in their efforts, wasting much of their time trying to escape responsibility or to shift blame to others. Outside the house, would-be rescuers and authorities are similarly stymied. The Church, doesn't escape a few pointed jabs either, particularly in the ominous ending sequence that I will not spoil here.

I've also seen the film classified as a fantasy or genre picture, which doesn't feel quite right. There are elements of horror, mystery, and possibly the supernatural at work, but the story is concerned primarily with the drastic undercutting of the social constructs that the characters are dependent on, and the mechanism by which that is achieved is really arbitrary. The events of the film would have played out the same way if the inexplicable force imprisoning the guests was replaced by, say, a garrison of enemy soldiers or a natural disaster. Buñuel simply dispenses with a physical antagonist in favor of a metaphysical conundrum. There have been other, more complex allegorical films made in recent years that occupy similar territory, such as Alfonso Cuaron's "Children of Men" and Fernando Meirelle's "Blindness," which both use science-fiction devices to examine social upheaval.

I find "The Exterminating Angel" more effective for its simplicity. In interviews Buñuel's would later complain about lamentable acting from his principles and lousy production values, as the film was shot in 1962 on a modest budget in Mexico. It might be the language barrier or my lack of familiarity with the culture, but I couldn't see any evidence of corners being cut. Rather, I expect that the limitations of the production forced Buñuel to create something starker, tighter and more focused than many of his more celebrated Surrealist films. "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," by contrast, maddeningly meanders along with its characters. This is necessary by the plot's design of course, but results in a much less satisfactory viewing experience. The pressure of the enclosed spaces and mounting tension of "Exterminating Angel" force Buñuel to give us a fairly straightforward narrative and even something like a resolution - if only for a moment.

Is it the best example of Buñuel's work? Probably not. But it's a good contender for the one that leaves the most impact, as it's the one that's stuck with me the longest.

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What I've Seen - Buñuel

L'âge d'or (1930)
Los Olvidados (1950)
El (1953)
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955)
Nazarín (1959)
Viridiana (1961)
The Exterminating Angel (1962)
Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)
Simon of the Desert (1965)
Belle du Jour (1967)
The Milky Way (1969)
Tristana (1970)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
The Phantom of Liberty (1974)
That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)

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