The Exterminating Angel (or Le Angel Exterminador in Spanish) is (as expected) another strange offering from Louis Bunuel. I loved Un Chien Andalou and Le Age D'Or when l was younger, as they were so strange, both funny, weird and scary. Although I had never heard of The Exterminating Angel before, I was expecting it to be at least 'slightly off the wall'. It didn't disappoint in the slightest. A well off group attend a dinner party, but afterwards, the servants (apart from the majordomo) leave, and the guests find they (for whatever reason) cannot leave the room. They then start to get irritable, hungry, thirsty and sick, and the niceties of their society start to crumble. They use expensive pots for lavatorial needs, break a water pipe to drink from, and eat sheep that wander in (don't ask). Some of them end up dying, until they re-enact the first evening, and somehow, manage to find the mental strength to leave. Whilst this has been happening, people outside the home have been unable to enter, for the same unknown reason, but when the guests start coming out, they can then come forward, as though a spell has been broken. If all that is all not strange enough for you, they all go to church at a later date, but the same thing happens to everyone in the church, while riots happen outside, and sheep once again follow them in. I thought my dreams were crazy enough, but this was certainly way off on the wacky scale, and you could read any analogy into it, some obvious (although not necessarily correct) like the lambs going to the slaughter (or sheep wanting to join the elite at any cost), or the rooms representing the planet and its depleting resources. I'd rather just appreciate these kind of films for what they are. Bonkers.
And l didn't even mention the bear.
toodle pip
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