DIRECTOR: BERTRAND BLIER
BOTTOM LINE: Co-written and directed by Bertrand Blier and based on his own novel with the same title, “Going Places” (1974) – originally titled Les Valseuses (direct translation from the French: the testicles) – is a landmark in both New French Cinema and Queer Cinema as we follow Jean-Claude (Gerard Depardieu) and Pierrot (Patrick Dewaere) two aimless, anarchic young men who roam across France in stolen cars. Their journey is marked by petty crimes and random acts of violence, all portrayed with a disturbingly casual tone. They are joined by Marie-Ange (Miou-Miou), a passive hairdresser who becomes their companion, lover, and emotional sounding board. Her own quest for sexual fulfillment adds a layer of melancholy to the trio’s chaotic escapades.
Four sequences stand out:
The first is where Depardieu and Dewaere encounter a woman on a train (Bridget Fossey, who was the little girl in director René Clément’s 1952 masterpiece “Forbidden Games”) while she is breastfeeding her baby. They then partake in the milk themselves! This scene, in particular, is beautifully handled by Blier and his three actors. Shocking at first, it transforms itself into a moment of great tenderness.
The second is where the boys wait outside a women’s prison and pick up a newly released prisoner who they think is going to be sex starved. She is played by Jeanne Morreau, who gives the movie a touch of class. Although the film has been described as misogynistic – and it is, in places – I found these scenes to be both beautiful and sad.
The third is where the boys are horsing around and, wouldn’t you know it, they almost start pounding one another. Very sexy, and the reason for the movie’s inclusion in this essay.
The fourth is where Depardieu, Dewaere, and Miou-Miou encounter a bourgeois French family at a campground and seduce the very willing teenage daughter, played by a bratty Isabelle Huppert, much to the consternation of her parents.
Not for the faint of heart, the film is almost as sensational as it was fifty years ago.
Stars Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Miou-Miou and Isabelle Huppert gained significant recognition from this film.
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