Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Edgar Soberon Torchia Bertrand Blier's anarchic comedy is full of artistic resonance, and it sure has a special meaning to me: not only because a friend of mine made me see it to let me know what he wanted to do (oh, those labyrinthine tactics of old...!), but for it took two icons of French film heritage and put them upside down. First, that Moreau woman, of "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud", "Moderato cantabile" and "Jules & Jim" fame, makes love to the two boys before killing herself, and then la Fossey, the same actress that I had seen as a little girl in "Forbidden Games" was surprisingly playing a middle-class housewife in a bus, had her bare breasts fondled by the pair of petty thugs played by Depardieu and Dewaere. It changed my vision of French cinema, as it said bye-bye to the angst of the nihilist "nouvelle vague" and proposed anarchy as an antidote to stagnation. Of course there was also Miou-Miou, and next in line a future icon (Miss Isabelle), topped by an ironic ending for all.

kieronboote-134-969472 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.

Michael Neumann It's easy to see what made Bertrand Blier's 1974 feature so controversial: his serio-comic portrait of two amoral drifters dares the viewer to laugh while they steal cars, break into houses, terrorize strangers, and share all the women they can lay their hands on. It might have been a Crosby/Hope adventure (The Road to Depravity?) with the two comedians playing a pair of grubby, sex-obsessed delinquents, but the irony of the title is obvious: these boys are going nowhere. The elliptical structure of the film is far more noteworthy than its episodic non-plot (and far less dated than the French fashion trends of the mid 1970s), but Bertrand Blier's typically aloof direction makes it difficult to become involved in the hijinks of two such unsympathetic characters. No one can fault Blier's talent for casting, however: the film made Gerard Depardieu an unlikely international sex symbol, and the obliging bedmate in one of the more disturbing scenes is veteran actress Jeanne Moreau. Elsewhere, the traveling companions also include newcomers Isabelle Huppert and Miou-Miou.

Gammonoid I can remember seeing this movie as a kid in 1977 or 1978. HBO would show it late at night back when they were they one and only movie pay channel in existence. Back then it was UNRATED and was the only movie of its kind ever shown on pay television...especially back then. I would love to see it now as an adult where I would be more apt to understand the adult theme of it. It was probably the closest thing I had ever seen to pornography at the young age of 7 or 8. Luckily I had stupid babysitters and party-going parents on the weekends. Most of my memory of this movie was the completely erratic sexual behavior of these two guys. Breaking into houses to sniff underwear, feeding on a stranger's breast milk on a public bus, and fornicating in a cab at the request of one of their female subjects were just a few of the whacked escapades these guys were pulling off. A very racy film for the early '70s. Until I checked IMDb, I had no idea this movie had such a following. Most people I talk to have never heard of it.