ABSTRACT
Luis Bunuel's case, like that of several twentieth-century artists, illustrates that there are many points of confluence between modernism(s) and postmodernism(s), but also that there are some irreducible differences. The Exterminating Angel seals the fate of modernization/modernity in Bunuel's cinematography: catastrophe is its only way out. Postmodern "endism" has one of its first manifestations in this Bunuelian annunciation of the death of the bourgeoisie. Carnival and Apocalypse come together in Bunuel's celebration of the absurdity of the excess of modernity, of technological and technocratic reason, and of the consumer society of the spectacle. The "small weapon" of his movies, with its devastating intelligence, imagination, humor, and kindness, serves Bunuel's desire that they unmask that fascist potential which looms all over the world in "agony" of world disorder built, in great part, by rational and technocratic modernity.
