In 2005, Jean-Claude Brisseau was found guilty of sexual harassment after several actresses complained that he asked them to masturbate as part of their auditions. The following year, he made Exterminating Angels, depicting a director who conducts a rather unconventional series of auditions for a project about female sexual pleasure. Clearly, Brisseau isn't one to shy away from placing his head on the critical chopping block.
His alter ego François (Frédéric Van Den Driessche) prepares for his film by spending most of his time watching women finger themselves and each other.
Most of Exterminating Angels' first hour takes place in a pornotopia of happy female wanking and male gazing. Throwing in allusions to Luis Buñuel, Greek tragedy and the Bible, it attempts an ambitious blend of sex and metaphysics that few films have even ventured near. Unfortunately, as the mood grows darker, it becomes more self-pitying. François fiddles with taboos, unaware that they have genuine power; the negative consequences he suffers go beyond the fine and suspended sentence Brisseau received.
Nevertheless, Exterminating Angels would be easier to appreciate if it didn't have such strong real-life parallels — it's grating that even when women criticize François, they're generally delivering back-handed compliments.
(One of the women he auditions achieves her first orgasm in his presence.) Despite a few devices that complicate straight-male voyeurism, such as a pair of female angels that watch over François, Exterminating Angels never transcends the vanity of that narrow perspective. — Steve Erickson