Les valseuses

The movie has a distinct (albeit brutish and rough) humanity for all its borderline depravity - the zippy/lyrical score points up the comic side of their misadventures, and even when they're at their most thuggish (like terrorizing the woman on the train), a semi-pitiful vulnerability lurks never far away (Dewaere sucks on her breasts like a baby). Blier cuts away from the scene where Depardieu may be about to rape Dewaere, so we're never sure how explicitly to read the manifestly homoerotic aspect of their relationship - either way, that incident is the start of their relative humanization (so the movie could certainly be read as pro-gay, although it could likely be read as pro-anything you want). The movie has many objectionable scenes and points of sexual politics and is probably best taken as a general cartoon on the foibles of both sexes, making a mockery of the whole notion of sensitivity and honesty, and hitting numerous points of possible profundity on the basis that if you fire off enough shots, some of them are bound to hit.

Not so many people like the movies of Bertrand blier simply because they don't understand them. Simply because they are different kinds of people.

If you have not been living under a deep desperation intertwined with great personal hope it may be hard for you to enjoy the humor blier shown here.

And also the film of blier cannot be classified easily as black-comedy or cult etc. like those of pulp fiction etc. Because there is this delicacy which the audience of north-america frequently fail to appreciate.

When I looked at these two `hooligans' dining with Jeanne moreau in the seaside restaurant, I felt they were more gentil than any gentleman can have been.

The urge to make love wildly like these is the normal reaction we feel under the unbearable pressure of meaningless being-symbolized by the camion suddenly emerges at the Carrefour.

SO, les valseuses is much better a name than going places. To dance a valse you need to be elegant, but going places you don't.

I only lasted through fifteen minutes of this. The first scene has the two main characters - big strong guys - chasing a middle-aged woman around a block of flats and finally cornering her. The woman is prim and prissy and no-one I'd want to know. Her behaviour is as childish as theirs. But there's two of them and only one of her, and they're stronger than her. It really disturbs me that so many people seem to find this scene, and the ones that follow, funny. I think there's a big difference between being bourgeois and having some basic compassion for the human condition. In fact the emptiness of the main characters strikes me as at least as bourgeois in its way as the people who are into glossy cars and so on. Too bad, since I love Stephane Grappelli.

There will be people who are able to fully identify with our two main actors (and/or the main female in this), but there may also be some who can't really get their deal entirely. I don't think the characters are or should be role models. On the other hand, the struggle is real. If you are not able to see or have a goal, what do you do? Where do you go? How do you achieve satisfaction? (very much pun intended in this case).

Now having said that, the acting is more than rock solid and while there are cringe worthy scenes (some things feel like at least sexual harassment, until the female involved caves in, like in the train), viewers may experience them differently. Especially considering the free loving decade this was shot and made in. There's a vibe here that you have to accept. Some things are easier to swallow others not so much. But while there is a lot of innuendo and a lot of sexual situation (including a lot of nudity), this is not so much titilating as it is funny. Still more of a road movie/drama, this is quite the experience and voyage one takes with those mischiefs/small time crooks ...

A wonderful, free flowing, often lyrical film that whisks you along, ever smiling, even if there are truly shocking incidents along the way. One gasps at the way the women are treated and yet ultimately they seem to come through very well and it is much credit to all concerned that so many potentially disastrous scenes all work so very well. This is possibly Depardieu's best performance, certainly his most natural. Jeanne Moreau performs outstandingly in what must have been a very difficult role to play and including vigorous sex scenes with a couple of guys at least half her age. Miou-Miou is lovely throughout and again has very difficult scenes to play. Initially this seems a down and dirty misogynist rant/romp but as the tale and characters unfold a much more tender and honest picture emerges. In the end this uncompromising and daring film demands respect.