Bertrand Blier, Provocative Oscar-Winning French Director of ‘Going Places,’ Dies at 85

variety.com:

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Provocative French filmmaker Bertrand Blier, who scored hits with transgressive comedies featuring Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert such as “Going Places” and “Get Out Your Handkerchiefs,” has died.

He was 85. Blier died on Monday night at his home in Paris surrounded by his wife and children, his son Leonard Blier told French news agency AFP. “It is with great sadness that I learn of the death of Bertrand Blier.

He was a genius of dialogue, in the tradition of Prévert and Audiard,” French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said on X. Born in 1939 in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, Blier was the son of actor Bernard Blier and grew up was steeped in film and theatre.

He made his directing debut with cinema-verité documentary “Hitler—Never Heard of Him” in 1963 which earned critical kudos. “Going Places,” which came out in 1974 and involved two brutal young men who drift about France in stolen cars and harass and assault women, steal, and commit murder, gave Depardieu his big break and established Blier as one of France’s most subversive comedic voices.