Kelly WandExterminating Angel
September 6th 2006 00:02
“Exterminating Angel” is one of those films that I was really beginning to believe I had only imagined I’d seen. In my mind, it was turning into something like the mystery film they’re looking for in John Carpenter’s “Cigarette Burns”. I saw it once when I was in my teens and then it vanished. If I talked to friends about it, they hadn’t seen it. I could see mentions in the film books and Alex Cox named his production company after it. But these were ghosts of the film. There appeared to be no chance of a second peek.
A bunch of us had gone down to London’s Tate Gallery in response to a tiny notice in a “Time Out” magazine. Free films it said and we were up for free films. There was me and Brett and Tony D. Dave Sex Gang might have been there too. We were bored teenagers who had blown our dole cheques on coloured hair dye and speed tablets. Free was a word we liked a lot. It was the kind of word that kept our Dick Whittington fantasies alive. London opened her arms to us and we loved her for it.
At six o’clock, they opened a little side door and we were led through a winding maze of corridors. Deep in the bowels of that august institute, we found a nest of wire framed chairs lined up before a lazily erected screen. It was time to learn about surrealist cinema. The main event was set to be the Marx Brother’s “Animal Crackers” but it was the first film that shook me up.
I can only begin to tell you how influential I, personally, have found “Exterminating Angel” to be. Maybe, it was just good timing or simple coincidence. Before I saw this film, I was playing in punk bands. After seeing this, the music started taking stranger directions. Dave, too, would soon be moving musically sideways. Tony had been writing the fanzine “Ripped and Torn” but he would soon move on to writing “Kill Your Pet Puppy.” Certainly change was in the air. Maybe it was just timing but I do think this film had formed part of those times for us.
This new DVD release comes complete with a fabulous booklet that tells you a whole lot about the director Luis Bunuel and the film itself. I’m not going to go into a whole lot of detail because I hope you’ll pick up the film and read all that stuff for yourself. If the thought of a 1962 black and white Spanish language film is an immediate turn off for you, there is not much I can say to convince you otherwise but I’d like to give it a shot. If I could recommend one film to anyone reading this it would be this one. It is not the best film I have ever seen but it is one of the most haunting. It is a gem that has, for too long, been allowed to lay underground. It is also a film that changes you just through the watching.
The story is fairly straight forward even if it is fantastic. In a mansion, the servants are preparing for the arrival of a party of rich people coming back from the opera. One by one, they make their excuses to leave. If excuses don’t work, they leave anyway. The theatre goers arrive and then fail to go home. No matter what they try, they can’t leave the room. As the days wear on, the structured mannerisms of their “high” society break down into primitivism.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people. Have you ever found yourself waching one of those teen slasher flicks only to discover that the parade of teens on offer brings back too many memories of the arseholes you had to deal with in your own high school years? Haven’t you just started to cheer for the killer just a little? This film is like that.
Of course, it is a political film. The rich are portrayed as vain and vile. Even the most philanthropic are depicted as slaves to the peculiar rules of their social class. Their entrapment in the house seems to arise out of their own “politeness”. I should also mention that, even when taken as an arthouse film, it is pretty funny.
“Exterminating Angel” is also described as a masterpiece of surrealist cinema. I probably would have to disagree with the surrealist tag. Bunuel’s earlier “Un Chien Andalou” is a surrealist film. Its near random montage of strange and horrifying images has inspired a thousand art school copyists who have all proudly marched up to their teachers with tape in hand. “Look, sir,” they have said. “I have invented the wheel.” Their teacher then tells them that someone else invented the wheel but they do not listen.
“My wheel,” the student reasons. “Is my work and mine alone. It may look the same as other wheels but it is different because it is the wheel that I have made. I did not look to other wheels when I made my wheel.”
“Un Chien Andalou” is an act of territorial pissing that still claims ground today. The razar across the eye will still make you wince even though the editing remains crude. That film is a surrealist film.
On the other hand, “Exterminating Angel” is too structured, too plotted and too well structured to be a surrealist film. Its unlikely story line would not push the envelope of a comedy sketch show on television. This is a film that lines up its targets and then takes careful aim. It tightens screws. It plays to your conscious rather than your unconscious. I’m not saying this isn’t a great film because of that. On the contrary, I’m recommending this film to you in the strongest possible terms.
Films not only cost you money to see, they cost you time. Most films are produced to help you fill a void in your time. You look for something that you can do with that hour and a half before you head off to bed; an entertainment, a distraction from boredom. Well, this is a film that gives you something back for that time you spent with it. I’m not going to make the extraordinary claim that I wouldn’t be writing if it wasn’t for this film. I will, however, claim I would not be writing in quite the same way that I do if it wasn’t for this film.
| 86 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by Bob Short
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Couldnt agree more that this film is a must see for fans of socially minded cinema that offers ideas and perspectives on the way we live.