Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Review: The Exterminating Angel (El Angel Exterminador)


Starring: Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, Enrique Rambal
Directed by: Luis Buñuel
Language: Spanish
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 95 minutes



Like Pan's Labyrinth and Maria Full of Grace, I had to watch more movies for my Spanish class and this is one of them that I chose to use. The summary seemed interesting and I'm not the type to judge movies because they're old or are in black and white.



Edmundo Nobile and his wife Lucia hold an extravagant dinner party for their wealthy friends one evening. Everyone is cheerful and enjoy their dinner, despite their waiter Julio making a spill before dinner begins. Once the guests are done with their meal, they move to the piano room, listen to one of the guests play as some people dance to the music, mingle, and drink. As night rolls around, the wealthy party guests plan on leaving the party because they are tired, but instead they become comfortable in the Nobile's home and sleep in various areas of the music room and one of the adjoining rooms that is off scenes. The guests wake up and realize that they are unable to leave the room. Events began to turn for the worse for these important people in society as they have to live like animals unexpectedly.

Based off reading the summary, it seemed like an interesting movie, but sadly I was wrong. There were a lot of characters to keep up with that I honestly couldn't remember anyone's name, except for the doctor and the waiter. The conversations between the guests seemed like stereotypical rich people talk at first, during the dinner, but afterwards, I couldn't understand anything that was going on. I also became annoyed that two or three characters would constantly repeat the same information. The concept seemed promising, but the execution seemed lost in translation or something. There was scandal and conflict, but with all the characters, it was hard to feel anything for them in this situation. A lot of things didn't make sense like people getting ill and the reason behind the sheep and the bear. The ending was a complete facepalm as well.

As I mentioned before, this has nothing to do with the lack of color or this being an older movie, because there are older movies I do enjoy. This just isn't one of them. I was so confused and the resolute made me want to toss my laptop out the window. Perhaps it is a cultural thing that is lost in translation that made me and my friend that watched it with me appreciate it less, but until that translation pops up into view, I won't be recommending this to anyone.


Rating: 1.5/5



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