LACMA to screen The Exterminating Angel with Darren Aronofsky in person

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is launching its “In Person With…” series with director Darren Aronofsky discussing his films and Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel (1962), which will be screened. The Exterminating Angel baffled audiences when it was released, but today to modern audiences the surrealist film probably suggests a Twilight Zone episode in which an inexplicable event disrupts normal reality. For no clear reason, a group of high-class friends find themselves unable to leave the house oftheir friend. Trapped with each for days, their civilized veneer quickly erodes, revealing the base impulses that rule behavior. In one memorably nightmarish episode, a disembodied hand seems to come to life. (Buñuel had supposedly contributed a similar idea to 1947’s The Beast With Five Fingers during his brief stint in Hollywood.)

Darren Aronofsky is the director of many films that are baffling and controversial in their own way: Pi, The Fountain, Black Swan, and Noah, among others.

The screening and conversation will be followed by a reception.

The event takes place in the Bing Theatre at LACMA on Thursday, November 9 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $15 for LACMA Film Club and Film Independent members; $20 for LACMA members, students with valid ID, and seniors (65+); $25 for the general public. Get more information here.