The Exterminating Angels

Last updated

The Exterminating Angels
The Exterminating Angels poster.png
Theatrical release poster
French Les Anges exterminateurs
Directed by Jean-Claude Brisseau
Written byJean-Claude Brisseau
Produced by
  • Milena Poylo
  • Gilles Sacuto
Starring
CinematographyWilfrid Sempé
Edited byMaría Luisa García
Music byJean Musy
Production
companies
  • La Sorcière Rouge
  • TS Productions
Distributed byRézo Films
Release dates
  • 20 May 2006 (2006-05-20)(Cannes)
  • 13 September 2006 (2006-09-13)(France)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Box office$154,210 [1]

The Exterminating Angels (French : Les Anges exterminateurs) is a 2006 French erotic drama film written and directed by Jean-Claude Brisseau. It was screened at the Cannes Film Festival on 20 May 2006 and received a limited release in the United States on 7 March 2007. The film is about a director named François who embarks on a film project about female eroticism. He meets three struggling actresses who perform sexual acts in front of him. What François does not realise is that there is a lot more going on in the girls' heads than other parts and this leads to tragic consequences.

Contents

The film is semi-autobiographical; in 2002, director Brisseau had been arrested on charges of harassment, fined and given a suspended one-year prison sentence. The plaintiffs were three women who had performed sexual acts in front of him during their audition. [2]

The soundtrack for the film was composed by Jean Musy.

Cast

Production

On 31 October 2007, two actresses, one of whom stars in The Exterminating Angels, accused Brisseau of rape, sexual assault and harassment for a period from August 2005 to September 2007. Marie Allan, then aged 29, accused the director of having abused her during erotic "castings", carried out face to face and without a camera, in public places or at Brisseau's home. According to her, Brisseau would have promised a leading role in one of his films and asked for that to work these intimate scenes. The same accusations came from another actress, then aged 21, who said she suffered a "digital" rape by the filmmaker. Brisseau only admitted to having had a consensual sexual relationship with the first actress. A judicial investigation was opened, the man was heard as an assisted witness, but the procedure was abandoned for lack of evidence to establish "non-consent". [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luc Besson</span> French filmmaker (born 1959)

Luc Paul Maurice Besson is a French filmmaker. He directed or produced the films Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988), and La Femme Nikita (1990). Associated with the Cinéma du look film movement, he has been nominated for a César Award for Best Director and Best Picture for his films Léon: The Professional (1994) and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). He won Best Director and Best French Director for his sci-fi action film The Fifth Element (1997). He wrote and directed the sci-fi action film Lucy (2014) and the space opera film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gérard Depardieu</span> French actor (born 1948)

Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu is a French actor, known to be one of the most prolific in film history. He has completed over 250 films since 1967, almost exclusively as a lead. Depardieu has worked with over 150 film directors whose most notable collaborations include Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Maurice Pialat, Alain Resnais, Claude Chabrol, Ridley Scott, and Bernardo Bertolucci. He is the second highest-grossing actor in the history of French cinema behind Louis de Funès. As of January 2022, his body of work also includes countless television productions, 18 stage plays, 16 records and 9 books. He is known for having portrayed numerous leading historical and fictitious figures of the Western world including Georges Danton, Joseph Stalin, Honoré de Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, Auguste Rodin, Cyrano de Bergerac, Jean Valjean, Edmond Dantès, Christopher Columbus, Obélix, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippe Garrel</span> French filmmaker (born 1948)

Philippe Garrel is a French director, cinematographer, screenwriter, film editor, and producer, associated with the French New Wave movement. His films have won him awards at Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, and Berlin Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benoît Jacquot</span> French film director and screenwriter (born 1947)

Benoît Jacquot is a French film director and screenwriter who has had a varied career in European cinema.

<i>Going Places</i> (1974 film) 1974 French film

Going Places is a 1974 French comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Bertrand Blier, and based on his own novel. Its original title is Les Valseuses, which translates into English as "the waltzers", a vulgar French slang term for "the testicles". It stars Miou-Miou, Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vahina Giocante</span> French actress (born 1981)

Vahina Giocante is a French actress.

Alban Ceray is a Monegasque pornographic actor. His career spans over 30 years, from the Golden Age of French porn in the 1970s to the Internet era in the early 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacques Doillon</span> French film director

Jacques Doillon is a French film director and screenwriter. Some actresses to break through are Fanny Bastien, Sandrine Bonnaire, Judith Godrèche, Marianne Denicourt, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Juliette Binoche.

<i>Secret Things</i> 2002 film by Jean-Claude Brisseau

Secret Things is a 2002 French erotic drama film written and directed by Jean-Claude Brisseau, starring Coralie Revel and Sabrina Seyvecou. The film is sometimes associated with the New French Extremity. Cahiers du Cinéma named Secret Things, jointly along with Ten by director Abbas Kiarostami, as the best film of 2002. The film was awarded the French Cineaste of the Year title at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. In 2005, Brisseau was found guilty of sexually harassing two actresses between 1999 and 2001 during auditions for the film.

Extermination Angel, The Exterminating Angel or Exterminating Angels may refer to:

Jean-Claude Brisseau was a French filmmaker best known for his 2002 film Secret Things and his 2006 film The Exterminating Angels.

<i>Noce Blanche</i> 1989 film by Jean-Claude Brisseau

Noce Blanche is a 1989 French romantic drama film written and directed by Jean-Claude Brisseau. It stars Vanessa Paradis, Bruno Cremer and Ludmila Mikaël, with François Négret, Jean Dasté and Véronique Silver.

Marie Allan is a French actress. She appeared as a leading actress in Jean-Claude Brisseau's 2006 Cannes Film Festival film Les Anges Exterminateurs.

<i>Emmanuelle</i> (novel) Novel by Emmanuelle Arsan

Emmanuelle is an erotic novel by Emmanuelle Arsan originally written in French and published in France in 1967. It was translated into and published in English in 1971 by Mayflower Books. It is a series of explicit erotic fantasies of the author in which she has sex with several—often anonymous—men and women, as well as her husband. It is written in the first person and the reader sees events entirely through the eyes of the sexually adventurous heroine. The book sold widely and later went on to be adapted into a film. The book had two print sequels, and the film launched an extended series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex in film</span> Sex in mainstream film

Sex in film, the presentation of aspects of sexuality in film, especially human sexuality, has been controversial since the development of the medium. Films which display or suggest sexual behavior have been criticized by religious groups or have been banned or censored by governments, although attitudes have changed much along the years and a more permissive social environment has developed in certain parts of the world, notably in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. In countries with a film rating system, films which contain explicit sex scenes typically receive a restricted classification. Nudity in film may be regarded as sexual or as non-sexual.

Alice Arno, is a French actress, nudist and model, best known for her roles in European sexploitation and horror film genre.

<i>Benedetta</i> (film) 2021 film by Paul Verhoeven

Benedetta is a 2021 biographical psychological drama film co-written and directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring Virginie Efira as Benedetta Carlini, a nun in the 17th century who joins an Italian convent while a young child and later has a lesbian love affair with another nun, while seeing religious visions.

Christophe Ruggia is a French film director and screenwriter.

Lise Bellynck is a French actress, producer, director, screenwriter and editor.

References

  1. "The Exterminating Angels (2006)". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  2. Burr, Ty (16 March 2007). "As eroticism, 'Angels' doesn't fly". The Boston Globe . Retrieved 11 November 2008.
  3. Agence France-Presse. "Jean-Claude Brisseau, soupçonné de viols, a été entendu comme "témoin assisté"". Libération (in French). Retrieved 13 February 2022.