The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

The Exterminating Angel
95
César del Campo, Rosa Elena Durgel, Lucy Gallardo, Enrique
García Álvarez, and more
How would you describe The Exterminating Angel to someone who has
never seen it?
Gibney: The Exterminating Angel is a film about a group of people who go
to a dinner party and suddenly realize that they can’t leave the room. The
movie is about what happens when they realize that and how the veneer of
all of their civilized conventions breaks down. It’s dark, but it’s also wickedly
funny and mysterious in ways that can’t be reduced to a simple, analytical
explanation. I always thought that’s what’s great about movies sometimes—
the best movies have to be experienced; they can’t just be written about.
When did you first see it?
Gibney: I saw it in college. When I went to Yale, there were a tremendous
number of film societies. And every night there would be another movie to go
see at a film society. I had heard about Andalusian Dog—Un chien andalou—
but I never really knew much about the films of Luis Buñuel. Somebody said,
“You should check this one out.” So, one night—I think it was at a Berkeley
Film Society—I went to see Exterminating Angel. And it rocked my world.
How so? You left the theater thinking . . . what?
Gibney: Well, it was such an interesting use of cinema. Suddenly there was
a film outside of plot points. It was a film in which things happen that are
so mysterious and embrace the contradictions of everyday life. You didn’t
know whether to laugh or cry or get really angry. There was a tremendous
sense of irony and mystery, and also the sense of a mischievous filmmaker
behind all of this. So, it wasn’t just the story unfolding—you got this sense
that there was an artist trying to tell you something.
That was very interesting for me. But particularly, the surrealist mode
had a way of embracing the contradictions of everyday life, so that there was
a multilayered experience. The idea that you didn’t know whether to laugh
or cry, at times. That was really something.
The humor was so pointed and political. So many political films have a
kind of hand-wringing, whining, or propagandistic quality to them. This