With its simple, parable-like story and restrained visual style (achieved through the beautifully understated cinematography of Gabriel Figueroa), The Exterminating Angel presents one of Buñuel’s most devastating critiques of the bourgeoisie. Set in the home of an aristocratic couple who have invited their friends for supper after the opera, the film inaugurates one of Buñuel’s signature narrative twists: the endlessly protracted meal in which, according to the Mexican proverb, "corpses and guests begin to smell bad." The guests remain inexplicably trapped in the salon and, without the aid of their servants, begin to lose hold of their moral compass. Death, a double suicide, and general ennui reign in this nightmarish vision of the good life.