# Going Places (1974 film)
**Going Places** (French: *Les Valseuses*) is a 1974 French comedy-drama directed by Bertrand Blier, adapted from his own 1972 novel of the same title, about two amoral young drifters, Jean-Claude and Pierrot, who roam 1970s France in stolen cars with the sometime hairdresser Marie-Ange.[1](https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2025/01/21/bertrand-blier-realisateur-et-scenariste-auteur-des-valseuses-est-mort-a-85-ans_6508368_3382.html) • [2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/les_Valseuses/10346) It was one of the biggest French box-office hits of the 1970s, made stars of [Gérard Depardieu](https://www.edgepedia.org/gerard-depardieu), Patrick Dewaere, and Miou-Miou, and has remained controversial for its treatment of women.[3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-05-14/horrible-horrible-horrible-the-gerard-depardieu-box-office-hit-that-still-sparks-outrage-50-years-later.html?outputType=amp)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Les Valseuses*; the word is French slang for testicles[4](https://elpais.com/icon/2025-05-14/horrible-horrible-horrible-el-exito-de-taquilla-de-gerard-depardieu-que-indigna-50-anos-despues.html) |
| Director and source | Bertrand Blier (1939–2025), adapting his own novel published in 1972 by Robert Laffont[1](https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2025/01/21/bertrand-blier-realisateur-et-scenariste-auteur-des-valseuses-est-mort-a-85-ans_6508368_3382.html) |
| French release | 20 March 1974; banned to under-18s on release[5](https://www.jeannemoreau.fr/portfolio/les-valseuses/) • [1](https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2025/01/21/bertrand-blier-realisateur-et-scenariste-auteur-des-valseuses-est-mort-a-85-ans_6508368_3382.html) |
| Principal cast | Gérard Depardieu (Jean-Claude), Patrick Dewaere (Pierrot), Miou-Miou (Marie-Ange), Jeanne Moreau (Jeanne Pirolle), Isabelle Huppert (Jacqueline)[5](https://www.jeannemoreau.fr/portfolio/les-valseuses/) |
| Box office | Second highest-grossing domestic release in France that year, selling nearly six million tickets[3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-05-14/horrible-horrible-horrible-the-gerard-depardieu-box-office-hit-that-still-sparks-outrage-50-years-later.html?outputType=amp) |
| Key crew | Screenplay Blier and Philippe Dumarçay; cinematography Bruno Nuytten; music Stéphane Grappelli; editing Kenout Peltier[5](https://www.jeannemoreau.fr/portfolio/les-valseuses/) |
| Running time | 119 minutes per the CNC visa record; other listings give 118 or 150 minutes[6](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/41529) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and characters
Jean-Claude (Depardieu) and Pierrot (Dewaere) are two young petty criminals who live by theft, stealing handbags and cars and terrorizing the residents of their housing-project neighborhood.[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/les_Valseuses/10346) • [8](https://www.netflixmovies.com/going-places-1974) After an altercation with a hairdresser, they take off with his employee and mistress Marie-Ange (Miou-Miou), a detached young woman who becomes their lover and companion.[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/les_Valseuses/10346) An early episode has the pair steal a [Citroën DS](https://www.edgepedia.org/citroen-ds) and return it at night, where its owner waits with a gun; Pierrot is shot in the groin, Jean-Claude gains the upper hand, and the two drive off with Marie-Ange, the owner's companion.[8](https://www.netflixmovies.com/going-places-1974)
On the run, the trio meets Jeanne ([Jeanne Moreau](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeanne-moreau)), a former prisoner old enough to be their mother, who becomes their lover and then kills herself after a night of shared happiness.[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/les_Valseuses/10346) • [9](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/401241/) They then help her son Jacques, newly released from prison, and join him in robbing a guard from the prison where he was held; Jacques shoots one of them, and the pair flee again.[9](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/401241/) Along the way they encounter Jacqueline ([Isabelle Huppert](https://www.edgepedia.org/isabelle-huppert)), a sixteen-year-old runaway who joins them, and the film ends with the group driving toward Italy.[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/les_Valseuses/10346) • [10](https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/api/core/bitstreams/2f660768-3074-44d2-b04d-0dc4cfd4dc98/content)
## Production
Blier wrote the novel *Les Valseuses* and then the screenplay with Philippe Dumarçay, directing the film himself after two earlier, little-noticed features (*Hitler, connais pas!*, 1963, and *Si j'étais un espion*, 1967).[1](https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2025/01/21/bertrand-blier-realisateur-et-scenariste-auteur-des-valseuses-est-mort-a-85-ans_6508368_3382.html) Shooting took place from August to October 1973 in the Drôme around Valence and in the [Pas-de-Calais](https://www.edgepedia.org/pas-de-calais) around Le Touquet.[5](https://www.jeannemoreau.fr/portfolio/les-valseuses/) Bruno Nuytten was the cinematographer, Jean-Jacques Caziot the production designer, and the jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli composed the score; the Larousse film dictionary credits the staging's rhythm, underlined by Grappelli's violin, and the carefully crafted dialogue as the film's principal assets.[5](https://www.jeannemoreau.fr/portfolio/les-valseuses/) • [2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/les_Valseuses/10346)
The film was produced by Paul Claudon through C.A.P.A.C. with Uranus U.P.F. and Prodis.[5](https://www.jeannemoreau.fr/portfolio/les-valseuses/) Miou-Miou and [Patrick Dewaere](https://www.edgepedia.org/patrick-dewaere) were a couple during the shoot, a fact they told Blier about before filming began.[7](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D324.html)
## Reception and controversy
**A divided press.** The film was banned to viewers under 18 in France, yet it became a triumph with the public, drawing more than five million spectators.[1](https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2025/01/21/bertrand-blier-realisateur-et-scenariste-auteur-des-valseuses-est-mort-a-85-ans_6508368_3382.html) • [11](https://www.premiersplans.org/fr/film/les-valseuses) Critics split sharply. In the magazine *Écran*, Jean Domarchi called it pornographic, writing that no pornographic film he had seen struck him as so nauseating; in *Le Monde*, Jean de Baroncelli argued that its humor and human warmth redeemed it.[3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-05-14/horrible-horrible-horrible-the-gerard-depardieu-box-office-hit-that-still-sparks-outrage-50-years-later.html?outputType=amp) In the United States, Vincent Canby of *The New York Times* dismissed its "assumed nihilism," while [Pauline Kael](https://www.edgepedia.org/pauline-kael) described it as "an explosively funny erotic farce."[3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-05-14/horrible-horrible-horrible-the-gerard-depardieu-box-office-hit-that-still-sparks-outrage-50-years-later.html?outputType=amp) • [12](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details?id=Zw6Y58-5g1A.P) Roger Ebert, reviewing the American release in May 1974, called it "the most misogynistic movie I can remember" while noting that audiences around him laughed.[13](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/going-places-1974)
**Censorship record.** The British Board of Film Censors judged the film unsuitable for classification when it was submitted in September 1974; a cut version was finally classified for cinema release in Britain in January 1992.[14](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/les-valseuses-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yoty2njy) An Associated Press report in the 2020s described it as a film so provocative it remains banned in some countries.[15](https://apnews.com/article/b3fe1e129ce44886fe067d823255b6c2)
## Legacy
The film's popular triumph established four previously little-known actors who became major figures in French and international cinema: Gérard Depardieu (born 1948), Patrick Dewaere (1947–1982), Miou-Miou (born 1950), and Isabelle Huppert.[11](https://www.premiersplans.org/fr/film/les-valseuses) • [16](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/cb38253481h) Time Out later ranked it number 17 in its list of the 100 greatest French films, and scholars have treated it as an early example of the French road movie.[17](https://www.timeout.com/movies/les-valseuses-1974) • [18](https://v1.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/intros/ArcherFrench_intro.pdf) Radio France's 2015 retrospective program described it as the film of a generation, embodying the revolt of 1968 against the France of Georges Pompidou.[19](https://www.mediatheques.strasbourg.eu/doc/RADIOFRANCE/2015F22805S0155/les-valseuses-histoire-d-un-film-devenu-culte)
The film's sexual politics have been reexamined in recent decades. Brigitte Fossey, who played the young mother assaulted on a train, said she could no longer bring herself to watch her scene, calling it "horrible, horrible, horrible."[3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-05-14/horrible-horrible-horrible-the-gerard-depardieu-box-office-hit-that-still-sparks-outrage-50-years-later.html?outputType=amp) *Le Monde* posed the question "Can we still watch *Les Valseuses*?" in a 2024 feature on French cinema's treatment of girls and young women.[20](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2024/02/27/cinema-s-devastating-obsession-with-girls-and-young-women_6562163_117.html) Blier himself, in a later documentary, said that what he did with *Les Valseuses* was "ignoble de grossièreté" (vulgar to the point of ugliness) and that he had enjoyed that ill-mannered quality; at the time, he said, political correctness did not interest him.[1](https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2025/01/21/bertrand-blier-realisateur-et-scenariste-auteur-des-valseuses-est-mort-a-85-ans_6508368_3382.html) The film was remade in the United States by [John Turturro](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-turturro), in a far less offensive tone according to *El País*.[3](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-05-14/horrible-horrible-horrible-the-gerard-depardieu-box-office-hit-that-still-sparks-outrage-50-years-later.html?outputType=amp)
## Availability
In the United States the film streams free with ads on Tubi and free on Kanopy, and can be rented from about $4.99 or bought from about $9.99 on platforms including Apple TV Store, YouTube, and Google Play Movies; it is not currently on Netflix.[21](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/going-places) • [22](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/going-places/1013957/where-to-watch/) In France it is available for rental on Canal VOD, ARTE Boutique, Apple TV Store, and other services.[23](https://www.justwatch.com/fr/film/les-valseuses)
## References
1. [Bertrand Blier, réalisateur et scénariste, auteur des « Valseuses », est mort à 85 ans, Le Monde (21 January 2025)](https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2025/01/21/bertrand-blier-realisateur-et-scenariste-auteur-des-valseuses-est-mort-a-85-ans_6508368_3382.html)
2. [les Valseuses, Larousse, Dictionnaire mondial des films](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/les_Valseuses/10346)
3. ["Horrible, horrible, horrible": The Gérard Depardieu box office hit that still sparks outrage 50 years later, El País English (14 May 2025)](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2025-05-14/horrible-horrible-horrible-the-gerard-depardieu-box-office-hit-that-still-sparks-outrage-50-years-later.html?outputType=amp)
4. ["Horrible, horrible, horrible": el éxito de taquilla de Gérard Depardieu que indigna 50 años después, El País (14 May 2025)](https://elpais.com/icon/2025-05-14/horrible-horrible-horrible-el-exito-de-taquilla-de-gerard-depardieu-que-indigna-50-anos-despues.html)
5. [Les valseuses, filmography page, jeannemoreau.fr](https://www.jeannemoreau.fr/portfolio/les-valseuses/)
6. [LES VALSEUSES, fiche oeuvre, CNC Visas et Classification](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/41529)
7. [Les Valseuses, Film 1974, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D324.html)
8. [Going Places (1974) on Netflix, NetflixMovies.com](https://www.netflixmovies.com/going-places-1974)
9. [Les valseuses, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/401241/)
10. [Isabelle Huppert and Les Valseuses, University of Cambridge repository](https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/api/core/bitstreams/2f660768-3074-44d2-b04d-0dc4cfd4dc98/content)
11. [Les Valseuses, Bertrand Blier, Festival Premiers Plans d'Angers](https://www.premiersplans.org/fr/film/les-valseuses)
12. [Going Places, Movies on Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details?id=Zw6Y58-5g1A.P)
13. [Going Places movie review, Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (13 May 1974)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/going-places-1974)
14. [Les Valseuses, BBFC classification record](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/les-valseuses-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yoty2njy)
15. [Depardieu is on trial, and so is France, Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/b3fe1e129ce44886fe067d823255b6c2)
16. [Notice bibliographique Les valseuses, Bibliothèque nationale de France](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark%3A/12148/cb38253481h)
17. [Les Valseuses (1974), Time Out film review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/les-valseuses-1974)
18. [The French Road Movie in its Historical and Film-historical Contexts, Berghahn Books introduction](https://v1.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/intros/ArcherFrench_intro.pdf)
19. ["Les Valseuses", histoire d'un film devenu culte, Radio France / Médiathèques EMS (2015)](https://www.mediatheques.strasbourg.eu/doc/RADIOFRANCE/2015F22805S0155/les-valseuses-histoire-d-un-film-devenu-culte)
20. [Cinema's devastating obsession with girls and young women, Le Monde (27 February 2024)](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2024/02/27/cinema-s-devastating-obsession-with-girls-and-young-women_6562163_117.html)
21. [Going Places streaming: where to watch movie online, JustWatch US](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/going-places)
22. [Going Places: Where to Watch, Stream, Rent, or Buy, Moviefone](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/going-places/1013957/where-to-watch/)
23. [Regarder Les Valseuses en streaming complet et légal, JustWatch France](https://www.justwatch.com/fr/film/les-valseuses)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedy-drama films*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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