Going Places : Mirror of French Boomers
Going Places (original title: Les Valseuses) hit French screens in 1974, it ignited immediate scandal. The film follows the anarchic road trip of two petty criminals, Jean-Claude (Gérard Depardieu) and Pierrot ( as they drift through provincial and urban France. Their journey is a blur of thefts, provocations, sexual encounters, violence, and fleeting moments of strange tenderness.
Black comedy, road movie, social satire, generational chronicle, or libertarian manifesto; the film continues to divide audiences.
Nearly five decades later, Going Places remains a slippery cultural artifact. Yet beyond its provocations, it stands as a vital snapshot of early 1970s France. Through its insolent, often disturbing gaze, Blier captures a society still digesting the cultural shock of May ’68 while drifting into an era of economic and moral disillusionment.
A Film That Refuses to Behave
The first shock of Going Places is its tone. From the opening frames, it is clear that conventional cinema rules do not apply. Jean-Claude and Pierrot are not heroes. They are selfish, irresponsible, often violent, and occasionally loathsome.
Their journey across France feels less like a quest and more like a perpetual escape. They steal cars, assault strangers, manipulate everyone they meet, and exist entirely outside social structures. Yet, despite their flaws, the film paradoxically generates a strange attachment to them.
This contradiction is one of the film’s great strengths. Blier consistently refuses to moralize. He neither condemns nor glorifies his characters. He simply observes them, with cynicism, humor, and occasional compassion.
The direction adopts a quasi-documentary approach. The roads, cafés, small towns, and modest apartments feel remarkably authentic. This visual simplicity contrasts sharply with the narrative’s chaos, reinforcing the sense that these characters could actually exist.
The performances remain astonishing. Depardieu already commands the physical presence that would make him one of France’s greatest actors. Dewaere brings a nervy, unpredictable energy that fuels much of the film’s vitality. Miou-Miou, (coupled with Dewaere at the time) delivers a nuanced performance in a role that could easily have become caricature.
Going Places from a historical context.
Only six years separate its release from the events of May ’68. France remains profoundly marked by that period of student and worker protests, which challenged political authority, traditional institutions, and social norms. This was also the era of France’s feature film pornography production. Belier combines the shock value and sexuality of porn with the acting and story-telling of more traditional films. The result is a soft-core engaging film that becomes the talk of the town.
The slogans of that era promised greater individual freedom, a rejection of bourgeois conformity, and a revolution in human relationships. Some of that energy surfaces in Going Places.
Jean-Claude and Pierrot represent a distorted, degenerate version of the libertarian dream. They reject work, authority, family, and social convention. They live in the moment and refuse all responsibility. The rebellious (hippie culture of the 60s was fading). Grand collective utopias were losing their power. Many young people felt a growing disillusionment with a society that had not changed as radically as they had hoped.
The Sexual Revolution, Stripped of Romance
One of the film’s most controversial aspects remains its portrayal of sexuality.
The early 1970s marked a period of profound transformation in French morals. The spread of contraception, the questioning of traditional morality, and the rise of feminist movements were reshaping relationships between men and women. Also pornography was being made into feature films.
Going Places directly engages with these changes, but in ways that remain shocking today. Sexuality is omnipresent. It is often presented as a physical need, a drive, or a playground. Romance is almost entirely absent. Relationships are defined by desire, frustration, power, and sometimes violence.
An Attack on Bourgeois Respectability
Blier also targets what he sees as middle-class hypocrisy. Throughout the film, authority figures appear ridiculous, powerless, or morally compromised. Notables, shopkeepers, law enforcement, and upstanding citizens are rarely shown in a favorable light.
This critique follows a long tradition in post-war French cinema, but here it takes a particularly aggressive form. Blier seems to suggest that social outcasts and delinquents are merely exaggerated reflections of an entire society’s contradictions. The protagonists commit their excesses in plain sight, while other characters simply hide their own flaws better.
This deeply cynical vision contributes to the film’s subversive character.
Boomer mindset hasn’t really changed.
Even today the Boomers do as they please. All that has changed is that instead of fighting the establishment, they have become it. It’s like knowing all the stuff they got away with, they changed the rules so the next generation couldn’t enjoy the same freedoms.
The sexual liberation portrayed in this film was not a homogeneous phenomenon. While it promised greater freedom, it also raised new questions about consent, equality, and power dynamics. Our porn consuming modern era seems to be more sexually liberal on the surface. But all the social changes since the Boomers took power, have removed trust from society. So the virtual has largely replaced real experiences.
Blier warned us of the limits of this responsibility shirking mentality. His two protagonists build nothing. Their freedom is essentially negative, they are not exploring their world, but on the run. Leaving a trail of consequences behind them. They can destroy, but they cannot create. Beneath their apparent independence lies a profound existential void.
The film functions as a time capsule, revealing the contradictions of a society in transition.
Going Places continues to provoke divided reactions.
Some see it as a libertarian masterpiece, perfectly capturing the spirit of its era. Viewed through contemporary sensibilities, several scenes appear deeply problematic. Some would likely be impossible to film today without major controversy.
Like many important works, Going Places does not seek to reassure its audience. It confronts viewers with imperfect characters navigating an imperfect world.
More than a cult film, Going Places today stands as a valuable social document, offering insight into the tensions, aspirations, and fractures of an era that continues to influence / call the shots.
