Resumen
Una pandemia causada por un oscuro virus tomó por sorpresa a la humanidad y nos obligó a confinarnos, a usar mascarilla y a mantener distanciamiento social. En la historia que narra el filme El ángel exterminador, acabada la cena ofrecida por los Nóbile una fuerza inexplicable les impide a ellos y a sus invitados abandonar la mansión. Transcurren los días, se terminan la bebida y la comida, la basura se acumula, algunos invitados enferman e incluso uno fallece. Como es de esperarse debido a la caótica y desesperante situación, aunada al encierro y al hacinamiento—lo opuesto al distanciamiento social—, los ánimos se caldean, los confinados pierden los buenos modales y se despojan de la careta de burgueses refinados que hasta entonces los había agrupado en una élite de gente supuestamente chic. De manera similar a la fuerza misteriosa que en el filme le impide la salida a la gente, el confinamiento y la convivencia forzosos impuestos por la pandemia de la Covid-19 han sacado a relucir lo peor de algunos individuos, y a la careta social figurada—a la Persona jungniana—ahora se le suma otra física.
Palabras clave: El ángel exterminador, Luis Buñuel, pandemia, Covid-19, confinamiento forzoso, Persona jungniana, careta social, mascarilla.
Neither masks nor social distancing in The Exterminating Angel (1962) directed by Luis Buñuel
Abstract
A pandemic caused by an obscure virus took humanity by surprise and forced us to confinement, to wear masks, and to maintain social distancing. In the story the film The Exterminating Angel narrates, the Nobiles host a dinner at their mansion. When the party is over, they and their guests realize that some mysterious force prevents them from leaving the house. Several days elapse, they run out of food and of water, the garbage piles up, some fall ill, and one dies. Predictably, due to the forcible confinement, to the overcrowding—as opposed to social distancing—, and to the exasperating and chaotic situation, the guests—now stripped of their masks of refined bourgeois, which had until then grouped them into a supposedly stylish elite—become quarrelsome, and lose their temper and good manners. Similar to the mysterious power in the film that hinders the people from leaving the mansion, the lockdown and the cohabitation imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic have brought out the worst of some individuals, and their figurative social masks—the Jungian Persona—are now joined by physical ones.
Key Words: The Exterminating Angel, Luis Buñuel, pandemic, Covid-19, lockdown, Jungian Persona, social mask, face mask
Fecha de recepción: 5/12/2021 / Fecha de aceptación:18/2/2022
