Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Two whimsical, aimless thugs harass and assault women, steal, murder, and alternately charm, fight, or sprint their way out of trouble. They take whatever the bourgeoisie holds dear, whether it’s cars, peace of mind, or daughters. Marie-Ange, a jaded, passive hairdresser, joins them as lover, cook, and mother confessor. She’s on her own search for seemingly unattainable sexual pleasure.
Blier's anarchic road film is genuinely one-of-a-kind — a picaresque assault on bourgeois morality, gender norms, and narrative convention that could have been made by no one else. Depardieu and Dewaere have raw, electric chemistry, and the performances crackle with dangerous spontaneity. Cinematography is competent and naturalistic, fitting the freewheeling tone without being especially distinguished. The plot, such as it is, is deliberately episodic and shapeless — provocative rather than structured, which works ideologically but leaves the film dramatically slack. The ending, involving the ex-con and the pistol, is darkly whimsical but feels abrupt and oddly anticlimactic given what precedes it. Novelty is its strongest suit: few films are this genuinely transgressive, amoral, and strange all at once.