[setanta]

Originally Posted by BB_Eye

Les Valseuses

This 1974 'road movie' was an early lead role for Gerard Depardieu and is typically French in more ways than one. Two young criminals living out a dangerous 'beyond good and evil' lifestyle, frequent casual nudity and lots of dark comedy. I found the fluctuations between the more comic situations and the more disturbing scenes where the lead rogues sexually assault various women a little bit jarring. It would also be an understatement to say that I haven't seen this sort of stuff before in French movies. Allusions to the movies of Godard are frequent and I found the movie's weakest moments were when it dealt with political themes. A scene towards the end of the movie depicts Depardieu's characters stealing a car from a middle class family and then seducing their daughter. The daughter agreeing to it as an act of rebelliousness towards her parents. This was one among many moments of high implausibility that rob the movie of its ability to suspend your disbelief and shed some insight into the characters.

So all in all, a movie which succeeds as a dark comedy, but fails as a character study. In this respect, Les Valseuses is not in the same league as the great movies of Godard and Truffaut, but it is never the less interesting to see the object-subject' relationship between male and female characters cemented by Breathless all those years prior to new, unsettling extremes. But where that said movie gave us a genuine insight into the mind of a morally blank hero, Les Valseuses gets tied up in overly broad political motifs.

I'd give it a begrudging recommendation, if only for Depardieu's charismatic, believable performance alone.

I can only vaguely remember that one. Is that where Depardieu shows the other fella the best love making technique and tells the girl to get more involved? It was a fairly out there film if I can remember it correctly.