Chichester Cinema at New Park
The Exterminating Angel
- El Ángel Exterminador
One of Bunuel’s finest surreal parables made in Mexico about a group of well healed dinner guests who are unable to leave their party.
A dinner party finds a group of well-behaved guests unable to leave. As the days pass their behaviour becomes more animal-like. Eventually they are able to gain entrance to the local church where once again their freedom is denied them... and over the next few days all the elaborate pretences and facades that they've built up by virtue of their position in society collapse completely as they become reduced to living like animals.
This odd story is reminiscent of a Beckett play in its compelling sinisterness. Buñuel’s political agenda is clear but the exact logic behind it is fuzzy - why can’t the guests leave? What do they each represent, beyond the corruption of class? Why does one woman have chicken feet in her handbag? Underneath the surrealism is a pointed satire about the dullness of conventional society. Who hasn’t felt like some tedious dinner party would never end. Luis Bunuel was cinema’s finest surrealists, and a close friend of Carrington. (Subtitles)
In the Studio (Limited Seating Capacity) Tickets £5
Mexico · 1962 · Luis Bunuel · 103min
