brilliant actors, brilliant editing

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I originally saw this film over 20 years and quite recently I had the misfortune to see it again. What a misogynistic, puerile, lousy excuse for a film it is.Bertrand Blier wasn't an "enfant terrible" when he made this film he was 35 and so these weren't the rape fantasies of some pathetic teen they represent the fully formed world-view of a man approaching middle age. At the time of its release the film was something of a cause celebre and to have criticised it I'm sure would have resulted in a person being criticised for having petite bourgeois and reactionary tendencies. Yet it is this film which is extremely reactionary in its treatment and depiction of women. The story concerns the bullying, cowardice, theft, rape, assault, vandalism and petty crime spree of two aimless low life's played by Gerard Depardieu Patrick Dewaere. The main female character, played by Miou Miou, is subjected to slaps, near drowning and rape and discovers that she can only achieve an orgasm herself after providing some young virgin with an orgasm, as if the true source of woman's pleasure is to please men. From there is gets even more offensive. The great Jean Moreau - what on earth is she doing in this garbage? – plays a character who is depicted as a post menopausal woman, grateful for the sexual gratification provided by the two charmless nit wits and who, because she can "no longer bleed", decides to end her life in a final act of bleeding. An act of cheap shock tactics designed to boost Blier's controversial reputation but in reality an act that says that all post menopausal serve no purpose when they can no longer have babies. After all what else are woman for in Blier's sad little mind other than to have babies or be sexually abused? And whilst we are on the subject of babies, let's not forget the scene where the two "heroes" molest a mother who is breast feeding a baby on a train and obviously her response is to be so grateful to the two idiots for abusing her in this way that she becomes lost in a sexual frenzy. What does Blier offer to explain this behaviour? Well obviously it is all the fault of tedious society as depicted, oh so obviously, by some out of season seaside resort. As for those who claim that the film is funny, well humour is a personal thing and I can find humour in a film like "Man Bites Dog" because of its satirical elements but if you think this is funny then you really must have a very condescending view of the working class and a primitive view of women in general. I did not find this film offensive because I am a prude and I can fully appreciate the power of controversial films like "Salo" or "Irreversible". But this has none of the technical virtuosity of Noe's film or the political charge of Pasolini. This is just old fashioned and woman hating. Throughout his career Blier continued to peddle this sort of idiotic nonsense, his view of a more enlightened approach to depict women was to provide his female characters with similar roles to those provided to the two male leads in this film. Yes Blier thought that equality for women meant that women could behave just as hideously as his male characters. Fortunately with the passing of time Blier's catalogue, basically the mindless drivel of a man who is scared of women, is now being consigned to the trash can of history where it deserves to be placed. Once thought of as a startling new talent with the passage of time Blier can be seen for the minor talent and even smaller intellect that he truly is.

I'd give it a ten for atmosphere and performances, but the misogyny of the characters (and, by implication, that of the author, who both wrote the story and filmed it) is too sickening, reaching truly horrifying proportions in the end chosen for Jeanne Moreau's character. Yep, we women should ALL commit suicide at forty, or whenever we stop being able to breed. Yep, there's nothing wrong with us, or the world at large, that a good shag won't cure. I thought growing up female in the eighties/nineties was tough; now I can only be thankful I wasn't around before then. Still, I'd recommend it to intelligent people; unfortunately, this is exactly the sort of movie that attracts most strongly the knuckle-dragging stupid. There's naked breasts (and more) in it, after all!

Les Valseuses (aka Going Places) is part road movie, part buddy movie (Depardieu and Dewaere). They play a pair of morally bankrupt petty crooks and car thieves who go from place to place displaying misogyny at every turn with remarkably compliant women. These include Jeanne Moreau who is on screen less than 20 minutes, Brigitte Fossey and a very young Isabelle Huppert. The only recurring female character is played by Miou-Miou who is subjected routinely to physical and sexual abuse. Sex comedies of the 1970s – in any language – seem crass and unfunny now, and this is no exception. Some comfort is offered by soundtrack music featuring the late Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist extraordinaire.

This is one a most famous movies of the French sexual empowerment of the seventies, starring Gerard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere in extremely sarcastic roles. It is also one of the many dark psychological dramas of the seventies/eighties, such as "Serie Noire", "Buffet Froid", "Beau Pere", all realized by Blier.However, I would like to correct the previous comment that was posted on the movie: the translated title in English is very far from the French version. It is true that both protagonists are "going places", but the title in French could be literally translated by "the waltz dancers", which is a metaphor for the movement of the testicles...