Long out of circulation, The Exterminating Angel (1962) and Simon of the Desert (1965) have just been released by the Criterion Collection. The two films remain among the most free-spirited of Buñuel’s films, fully embracing the non-traditional narrative of his initial films. Both movies are similar in that not much actually happens in either film, but a lot goes on.
In The Exterminating Angel the visitors at an stylish soire, held in a manor in a vauge, but apparently European city, find themselves incapable of departing. Still dressed in their evening clothes, they curl up on the sofas and floor of a parlor, unable even to cross the entry that would lead them to nourishment in the dining room and kitchen.
The servants instinctively leave the estate. Only the master servant (Claudio Brook) remains behind and he quickly finds himself trapped in the same weird predicament as the other guiests. What vaugue, unspecified hope there is seems to revolve around Leticia, a young woman (Ms. Pinal) who is apparently a virgin.
Early in the film Buñuel repeats a couple of sequences, the audience sees the assemblage of visitors entering the domicile on two separate occass; somewhat later a partygoer repeats a toast, apparently realizing at the last moment that he has repeated himself. In Bunel’s world, this repetition breaks the proper rules of cinematic permanence and advance which in turn seems to set off the crisis of removing the group from the natural flow of film storytelling. Leticia manages to free them temporarily by returning to the original state of the party. This freedom is short-lived; when the group goes to church to give thanks another repetition — the liturgical ritual — incarcerates them again.
The second Critierion release Simon of the Desert takes place in an even more restricted area: the small meter of a podium that, balanced atop a pillar in the heart of a desert, is household to the title character, a saintly penitent. The Director uses vertical camera moves to suggest that Simon wants to elevate himself above the world and move closer to God.
The Creator does not make an appearance, but Satan(Sylvia Pinal) makes a couple of memorable ones: first in the costume of a schoolgirl who tries to tempt Simon with the sight of her womanly limbs; then as a bearded but obviously feminine Jesus carrying a lamb; and finally as a chic jet-setter who manages to finally distract Simon and lure him to a Manhattan nightclub; an ironic, but effective version of a nightmare.
Both The Exterminating Angel and Simon of the Desert are offered in creamy black-and-white transfers on the Criterion discs, which the company has supplemented with documentaries on Buñuel’s work and recent interviews with (Who plays the Devil in Simon), and who remains a striking presence at 77.
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