The strangling angel
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The strangling angel |
| Original title | El ángel exterminador |
| Country of production | Mexico |
| original language | Spanish |
| Publishing year | 1962 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Luis Buñuel |
| script | Luis Buñuel, Luis Alcoriza |
| production | Gustavo Alatriste |
| music | Raúl Lavista |
| camera | Gabriel Figueroa |
| cut | Carlos Savage |
| occupation | |
| |
| synchronization | |
Der Würgeengel (Original title: El ángel exterminador ) is a feature film by Luis Buñuel from 1962 .
action
The Nobile couple are having a party when the servants suddenly leave their posts. Contrary to social conventions, the guests stay in the house overnight. The next morning everyone realizes that they can no longer leave the room they are in, although they are not physically prevented from doing so. Open doors and windows made it possible to leave at any time. On the other hand, outsiders and onlookers outside the house do not dare to enter the house to help the “trapped”. A few days go by and people get nervous and hysterical. Running out of food and water. One of the guests dies, a young couple commits suicide.
The guests are finally released or can free themselves from their situation. The liberation is celebrated in a church with a mass, during which there is unrest. The military takes control. The pastor with the holy water vessel in hand realizes that he can no longer leave the church through the wide open door.
title
Originally, the title was supposed to be The Shipwrecked of the Road of Providence . When the author José Bergamin talked about a planned piece entitled Der Würgeengel , Buñuel was so impressed that he took over the associative title.
Often one connects the biblical account of the last of the ten plagues in the book of Exodus ( 2 Mos 11,4 EU ) with the term choke angel . There, however, it is God himself who beats the firstborn, not an angel commissioned by him. In contrast, an angel appears in ( 2 Kings 19.35 EU ) who kills 185,000 of the Assyrians besieging Jerusalem. Bergamin seems to have thought of the Apocalypse in “Würgeengel”, but there is no Würgeengel either, rather the fourth of the apocalyptic riders is described as follows: I saw a pale horse; and he who sat on it is called "death"; and the underworld followed him. And power was given to them over a quarter of the earth, power to kill by the sword, starvation and death, and the animals of the earth. ( Rev 6,8 EU )
There are hardly any references in the film to the term strangling angel: The dying old man is glad that he no longer experiences the "extermination". In the off, a loud flapping of wings can be heard around the dying sequence. One door of the side cabinets is painted with choke angels.
criticism
“You have to look at the strangling angel repeatedly. Because this completely clear film, which can be read from front to back, is equally a work full of secrets, of dizzying complexity [...] because the actual cinematic virtuosity of Buñuel gets free rein under the obvious simplicity of the staging. Because this strangling angel is simply a masterpiece. "
"The [...] film is difficult to access because of its irrational attitude and also because of the strangeness of its mentality, but despite or perhaps precisely because of its esoteric peculiarities it can convey an artistic cinema experience."
Awards
- Director Luis Buñuel was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1962 .
- In 1963 Luis Buñuel won the Bodil for the best non-European film.
Continuing effect
- In her play Rechnitz (Der Würgeengel) (2008) about the Rechnitz massacre , Elfriede Jelinek refers to the film scenario.
- Martin Wuttke , Anna Heesen and Arno Waschk used the film as the basis for their play “After the Opera. Würgeengel ”, which premiered on February 12, 2012 in Vienna's Burgtheater.
- Thomas Adès : The Exterminating Angel . 2016, opera based on the film; Tom Cairns (direction and collaboration on the libretto), world premiere at the Salzburg Festival 2016
Trivia
Woody Allen makes a reference to the film in his film " Midnight in Paris " (2011).
literature
- Luis Buñuel: My last sigh . Ullstein, Frankfurt a. M. + Berlin 1985. pp. 229-231.
- Luis Buñuel: My last sigh. Memories. With a foreword by Jean-Claude Carrière . Alexander Verlag Berlin 2000.
Web links
- The Exterminating Angel in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Film review from the German Film Institute ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Ev. Munich Press Association, Review No. 461/1966
- ↑ nachtkritik.de
- ↑ Deutschlandfunk, February 14, 2012
- ↑ Review. In: Die Zeit from July 27, 2016
- ^ The time of August 18, 2011
