Les anges exterminateurs

Jean Claude Brisseau has made a name for himself with intelligent erotic films. For that reason, during the 2003 Rotterdam festival he was Film Maker in Focus. And he had only just returned to Paris when he was dragged into court by four actresses for sexual abuse. The actresses, who had failed to get a promised or hoped role in his film Secret Things , were unable to prove their case. Brisseau says that during the court case he had almost finished The Exterminating Angels, but it looks as if the court case has thrown it shadows over this film.
The protagonist is François, a rather naive film maker who is looking for actresses for a police film. Because this film has an occasional erotic scene, he asks the candidates to feign an orgasm. When one of them says she really did come – probably because of the director and camera watching – and for the first time as well, François becomes fascinated. He decides to set up a new film project embroidering on this subject, but he underestimates what this pornographically tinted investigation can bring about among potential actresses and in himself.
The film has an aristocratic tone, a meticulously stylised production design and carefully conceived build up. It has more in common with the honourable French literary pornographic tradition of Restif de La Bretonne and Marquis de Sade, than with contemporary video pornography. It is porn, yes, but of the most noble kind. (GjZ)

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