THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL

Mexico, 1962, 93 minutes, Black and White.
Directed by Luis Bunuel.

The Exterminating Angel is an interesting Bunuel film. Produced in the early 60's, it achieved good reputation very quickly and is now considered something of a classic. Bunuel, the exile from Spain, critical of both Church and State in his native country, visualizes in symbolic form the holds that both Church and State have over people. It is of this film that Bunuel said he was not interested in symbolism. He certainly must have had his tongue in cheek. The Exterminating Angel, the figure from the Bible who destroys people in times of plague or at times of judgement, is certainly a symbol. The people, a cross section of society, trapped symbolically in their own lives in a feast in a home, are unable to emerge. They are thrown back on themselves and in a drama like that of Jean Paul Sartre, they are unable to find an exit from their lives. They are thrown back on their animality, their basic instincts, they are shocked by what they do. When eventually they are released and go to church for thanksgiving, they find they are trapped in the church. Clearly an existential parable.

1. What was your basic response to this film? To its form and style? To its content? The film is considered a masterpiece. Do you agree? Why?

2. How satisfying was the experience of this film? As a cinema experience, the depth of meaning? The ambiguity of meaning and response?

3. The significance of the title: the plagues of Egypt, liberation and the Exodus, or Apocalypse and death? Or all these meanings? Or the application to extermination of this particular modern group?

4. Bunuel says there are no symbols. Do you believe him? How did various emblems, people, names, animals etc. appear to you? Bunuel says there is no rational explanation. Do you agree? Are explanations arbitrary or can they be based on what is seen in the film?

5. The importance of Mexico as a location for the incidents? As a symbol of a wider world? The Spanish Colonial background, the religious background?

6. What picture of society does Bunuel produce? The backgrounds of the settings, the house, the people themselves and their society style? The house itself? The educational background, including the major-domo? The snobbish background, the selfishness? The potential for decay: physical, psychological, spiritual? How pessimistic a view of society does Bunuel offer?

7. What background of order and disorder does the film have? The disruption of the servants and their leaving, their later returning? The people in society with order going into disorder? The people outside the house? Was the plot plausible in terms of order and disorder?

8. The significance of showing the arrival twice? Other repetitions in the film? As a distracting technique or as a symbolic technique?

9. The function of the major-domo? His Jesuit education? His aligning himself with the others, despite his menial rank? Why was he also trapped?

10. Comment on the portrayal of the party and its sophistication, Bunuel's judgement on the people concerned? As symbolic of the reason for their being trapped?

11. Why did they stay? Inertia, group complacency, decay and decadence?

12. What held them there? There were no physical barriers, what were the barriers? -The fact that they were real barriers? What did they mean?

13. Comment on the effect of the inertia and the complacency in staying, The decay, the shambles, the dirt, the being locked in a particular hell? The hell symbolism of this group? The damnation and the need for liberation? Or the hell as an extermination?

14. The character of the host? How well portrayed? As a host, the affair, his being blamed, his willingness to sacrifice himself, a potential saviour figure, the symbolism of the lamb? Scapegoat?

15. The meaning of the character of the Valkyrie? Why was she central, virginal, why was she able to re-trace and liberate the people?

16. The meaning of the lovers, their relationship to each other, the reason for their suicide and extermination2

17. The comment on Anna and her indulging in magic? The comment on superstition and decay?

18. Comment on the dreams and their surrealist nature, the hand, the knife etc.? The implication of the imagery of these dreams? Symbols?

19. Comment on the use as symbols and in realism of water, air, dirt, excrement, food? Cannibalism?

20. The role of the sheep and the bear in the film? Their inexplicable entry? Sacrifice, blood, food, the Eucharistic overtones?

21. There was a need for liberation. How did it happen? Why?

22. The comment by the people outside? Their curiosity and helplessness?

23. Why were they unable to enter? The reasons for the attempts, the nature of the failures?

24. Why were the servants able to go in?

25. The significance and symbolism of the attending of Mass? Were the people prayerful? Hypocritical?

26. Was it inevitable that there be a repetition of the entrapment and the barriers? The involvement of the clergy? The visualization of the inertia and the inability to move?

27. The irony of the ending? Its open-endedness? Would they be liberated or exterminated?

28. How much of the film was allegory, parable, insight into society, personal and psychological exploration, an exploration of the potential for revolution, spiritual crisis?

29. Comment on the most prominent of the cinema techniques and their success.