Š-DR- L'ANGE EXTERMINATEUR p26

27/02/2014 08:27 par tellurikwaves

Š-DR-L'ANGE EXTERMINATEUR de Luis Bunuel (1962) p25

27/02/2014 08:24 par tellurikwaves

Is this a tale for 2006?
10/10
Author: perilloj1512 from United States
16 June 2006

I saw this film for the first time on TCM this week. It was really thought provoking. What fascinated me was that there were people in the room who had all sorts of skills to figure out the problem and become free, but did not. Another intriguing aspect was that nothing: marriage, love, death, children, jobs, or intelligence and logic was enough to solve the problem. The solution comes in a very interesting way and the least likely person. I hope you will watch and check it out.

There was also a strong parallel between the catholic church and the people trapped in the room. I wondered if they were illustrating the socialist belief that 'religion is the opiate of the people.' The sheep were not eaten by the bear and all of these symbols were politically interesting. I have never written a review before and I hope I have not included any spoiler but this is a movie I would love to discuss over coffee: it is intelligent, mesmerizing, and a lesson for our time.

Š-DR- L'ANGE EXTERMINATEUR p24

27/02/2014 08:18 par tellurikwaves

Š-DR-L'ANGE EXTERMINATEUR de Luis Bunuel (1962) p23

27/02/2014 08:15 par tellurikwaves

Hilarious, surreal satire of a high society soiree gone terribly wrong...

Author: JohnnyCNote from Jacksonville, FL
2 March 1999

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

After an evening at the opera in Mexico City, a group of high society friends meet at the house of their hosts, Nobilé and his wife, to dine and spend the evening indulging in "sophisticated" conversation and whatever else such folks do at their parties. They stay later and later and eventually it's the next day, but no one has left. By that evening, they're all still in the salon, no one has left and no one will leave: they're trapped! All the have to do is walk out the door, but no one wants to be the first to leave.

As time goes on, one gravely ill guest dies, they run out of food, and eventually their genteel façade deteriorates and they become, as the Spanish title suggests, "shipwrecked", in their house on Providence St., losing all track of time. The subtitles typically leave out a lot of the Spanish dialog. Listen for the Voice of Reason, el Doctor, who's always saying "calmanse todos" ("everyone be calm") whenever there's a confrontation. Also listen for the electric shaver at odd times, much to the irritation of one of the guests.

I came across this crazy film in the summer of '86 after having purchased my first VCR. I soon found myself watching it twice daily and read all the books I could find on both the film and its director, Luis Buñuel. I found a lot of good information along with some glaring errors regarding the film, to which I attribute the possibility that the authors probably did not have access to a videotape copy of the movie and were thus unable to view it many times over.

That being said, I've been able to gather that the movie is primarily Buñuel's impression of "high society" parties that seem to go on forever (as he stated himself in several interviews). Much is made of the various repetitions in the film, and he stated that in some cases he'd actually witnessed the same people being introduced to each other several times throughout an evening, as is seen in the film itself.

Beyond that, I get the clear impression that a lot of this film is essential a joke in the sense that Buñuel throws in a lot of stuff just to confound the viewer and make himself laugh. When the women talk of seeing eagles when relieving themselves in large vases in a closet, this is in reality taken from a time in Buñuel's youth when he'd visit relatives in the mountains. Their outhouses extended over cliffs and it was indeed possible to see eagles, etc., flying underneath (poor birds!).

Then there are Buñuel's favorite targets like the upper class and classical music, including condutors and cellos. The dialog is rich in non-sequitors and ironic responses that are all the more hilarious when translated from Spanish. One great example is when Nobilé responds to his wife after she's noticed a guest has removed his coat (gasp!), "let us remove our coats as well, to attenuate the incorrectness".

I've watched a fair amount of Buñuel's films, and this is by far my favorite. There are others that are better in their technical acheivement, e.g. "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeousie", but this, and its contemporary, "Simon of the Desert", are as good as he gets in my book.I've been searching for a copy of the screenplay in Spanish."We don't want answers, we want to get out of here!"

Š-DR-L'ANGE EXTERMINATEUR de Luis Bunuel (1962) p22

27/02/2014 08:12 par tellurikwaves

The Human Condition
10/10
Author: LeandraZZZ from United Kingdom
12 September 2006

I just saw this for the first time yesterday. Although the movie was made in 1962, it was a very grainy print, and I am assuming that this was deliberate - it looked as though we were looking at something from the 1920s. I liked this; it was all part of it. This was an amazing movie - and amazingly prescient - a metaphor for the human condition (not just the upper classes), our life on this planet, and how fragile it all is (the slightest pressure on resources, the slightest dislocation, and the whole edifice crumbles).

The room they did not want to leave is this planet earth and our life on it. The guests are a metaphor for all of us, and we are very, very attached to life. When we are having a wonderful time, for sure we don't want to leave life and the planet - and even when we have made the most terrible mess of it (because we don't want to leave) and the whole thing has degenerated into fighting, bickering,destruction, hunger, thirst - we STILL don't want to leave.

In the movie, as in the cycle of life, it is not until there is a reprieve when everything suddenly clicks back into how it was (reincarnation?)that they are able to leave. They go back to the Church - but that is no answer either, because the whole same thing happens over again. At the end, the sheep all go to the church - "lambs to the slaughter" (and English phrase - I am English).

It is an interesting parable for today's world: the rich (First World countries?) take for granted food and water -- until they experience the loss of it firsthand themselves (the Third World?), and then all the social castes and 'mores' which they (we) have built up, crumble - they fight each other, they hallucinate, they hunger, they thirst. Later, even once they are free of the room, we see fighting in the streets of the city, with troops firing on the civilian population. The movie was made in 1962: does any of this sound familiar in today's world of 2006 ?

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27/02/2014 08:01 par tellurikwaves

Š-DR-L'ANGE EXTERMINATEUR de Luis Bunuel (1962) p20

27/02/2014 07:58 par tellurikwaves

Disturbing Dark Dangerous Satire

10/10
Author: mockturtle from New York
28 December 2002

I am not going to go into much specifics except to say that this is one of the darkest and most disturbing films I have seen. I would certainly in that way rank it alongside David Lynch's "Eraserhead," Werner Herzog's "Even Dwarfs Started Small," Terry Gilliam's "Brazil," and more recently Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch Drunk Love."

Each of these films is funny in a way, some hilariously, all subversively. I also must say, not to the detriment of the film necessarily, that this is one of the most irritating films I've seen. Bunuel truly gets under the skin of what gets under our skin: inane quirks, selfish boors, groupthinkers. The most disturbing imagery in the film suggests christian parallels with many of the guests praying or vowing to do good works if released, a butler that studied with jesuits and a final service in a church, as well as several lambs (often representations, as in Blake, of Jesus).

Possible also are references to Passover's "exterminating" angel of death, as a brick thrown through a window is at first attributed "some passing Jew." I will not presume to interpret these, and I probably could not do so convincingly if I tried, and, much like with Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive, I don't really want them interpreted for me. This is the wonder of Bunuel. "Cinema is anarchistic" is a probable misquote of him, but from the time of his last film no filmmakers except those above have been able to capture the feeling while watching a film that ANYTHING can happen, and very quickly, and how very frightening that is.

The other reason I write is that the VHS of this film is ATROCIOUS. The best part is where one guest babbles on for about 10 seconds, none of which is shown in the subtitles AT ALL. Most of them are difficult to read as they are against a white background, the quality is true crap. "Diary of a Chambermaid" is a fine film but this is the one that truly needs to be seen as it was intended.

Š-DR-L'ANGE EXTERMINATEUR de Luis Bunuel (1962) p19

27/02/2014 07:56 par tellurikwaves

Š-DR-L'ANGE EXTERMINATEUR de Luis Bunuel (1962) p18

27/02/2014 07:53 par tellurikwaves

A Weird Surrealist and Metaphoric Movie, Criticizing the Behavior of the Bourgeois Class

9/10
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
27 October 2003

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A group of bourgeois friends are trapped in a house after a dinner party. Some type of mysterious force does not allow them to leave a room. There, a few days later, their social behavior masks fall down, revealing persons very selfish, rottenness, confessions about their friendship and a 'bad smell': most of them stinks. They survive, through the sacrifice of some lambs, and in the end, everything and everybody returns to the same initial position and they leave the place.

The first time I watched this intriguing movie was in 1973, when I was a teenager. Since then, I have watched at least four more times. Now I had the chance to buy a DVD recently released in Brazil (again from the great Brazilian distributor Versátil). This time, I had the chance to see a spectacular restored photography in black & white, with wonderful shadows. There are many points in this metaphoric tale that I still do not understand, but this movie exerts some type of spell on me that makes me love it.

For example, I have not understood the title yet: why the exterminator angel? However, the essence of the story, with the hypocrite bourgeois class trapped in their world, changing positions without leaving their social class, sacrificing lambs to survive and in the end coming back to the same initial position in the world, is very clear to me. An unforgettable movie, but not recommended for all the audiences. My vote is nine.

Š-DR-L'ANGE EXTERMINATEUR de Luis Bunuel (1962) p17

27/02/2014 07:51 par tellurikwaves

A Masterpiece

10/10
Author: Andy S, (anstamatopoulos@yahoo.gr) from Thessaloniki, Greece
1 May 2007

This film, constitutes the absolute surrealist masterpiece of all seasons. With unique virtuosity, Bunuel shows how easily a person makes his bonds and limits his freedom.

Who are however these persons? They are those that made fortune without have worked never in their life or those, that with illegal ways acquired power and money. Naturally the one that puts unreal bonds in all the persons, with a view to check and dominate them, is the Church. The director accuse the high society and the Church and puts them to live as simple persons and they make things that they would never make. In this masterpiece Bunuel points out also the corruptness that exists in the society, which emanates from the Church and has expanded everywhere. It is not simply a film, it is a sociological approach of corrupted modern person.