Bertrand Blier’s Going Places (aka Les Valseuses) is a 1974 French comedy drama that is about two guys and lots of girls. French screen legends Miou-Miou, Gérard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere star in this movie, which is infamous for its look at sexuality, sex acts and loads of nudity!
The” plot” has to do with two hoodlums Jean-Claude (Gérard Depardieu, The Last Metro) and Pierrot (Patrick Dewaere, Traffic Jam) who steal cars and bicycles to get around that sexually harass and sexually assault women of all ages and sizes. One woman that doesn’t seem to mind is a hairdresser named Marie-Ange (Miou-Miou, The Sweet Sickness) because she doesn’t seem to enjoy sex. Despite being sexually assaulted, she joins them on various adventures. The two men engage basically in three-way sex with women throughout the movie, trying to satisfy themselves and the women they harass.
Going Places went nowhere for me and absolutely hated this movie. The feeble story to go with the unfunny attempts at humor and the mistreatment of women were an instant turn-off. I couldn’t decide if Bertrand Biler is a film director or just a pervert with a camera. Watching two men grope and harass women is extremely unappealing to me, let alone that they also steal cars and bikes from people who just stand there doing nothing about it.
Going Places is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, part of the Cohen Media Group. Given a 1080p transfer, the video presentation looks marvelous with great details to the scenery with rich textures throughout. Colors look strong, with daylight scenes bringing out the best in the image. Film grain is present throughout with a minimal amount of damage to the picture.
Going Places’s audio is a French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that boasts crisp and clear dialogue. Everything sounds perfectly balanced between various noises and sounds that blend perfectly well with the dialogue. No drop-offs or hissing were detected. Cohen media seems to go with forced English subtitles on their releases of foreign films.
This release has an audio commentary track by Professor of Film Studies at Columbia University Richard Peña who discusses this movie and gives some insight about it. There is also a trailer.
Even though I despised the movie, I can say that the audio and video for this release were excellent, plus it does have a commentary track worth listening to. Recommended to fans and voyeurs of cult films and enjoy tripe like this!
Going Places
Director- Bertrand Blier
Cast- Gérard Depardieu, Miou-Miou
Country of Origin- France
Distributor – Cohen Media
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –11/6/2022