European Films

Spoofing Secret Service spies such as James Bond has almost become a genre unto itself, with Austin Powers probably the most famous example. The reinvention of a French spy for the big screen may change this sooner rather than later, however. His name is OSS 117, and he was created in the 1950s as a character for a series of serious novels by Jean Bruce (exactly like Bond was created by Flemming as a much more serious character than he became in the films). Much less serious is the new film version  OSS 117 – Le Caire, nid d’espions (OSS 117 – Cairo, Nest of Spies), in which director Michel Hazanavicius and screenwriter Jean-François Halin not only spoof the original source material, Bond, Powers and 1960s television series, but also take on former French colonial relations in a ditsy and politically incorrect way without ever feeling out of synch, which makes OSS 117 one of the most hilarious films of the year.

Actor Jean Dujardin, the French comic revelation of 2005 -- when he starred in the titular role in Brice de Nice, the most visited local film of that year -- seems to continue his lucky streak as OSS 117, who is indeed as suave as he thinks he is, though he is also very lucky and very stupid into the bargain. It is 1955, ten years after he rescued some important documents from the Nazis in a black-and-white prologue,  and OSS 117 is sent to the Egyptian capital to execute a whole shopping list of items for the French Secret Service: investigating the death of his friend and erstwhile Cairo-based spy Jack; controlling the Suez Canal and, last but not least, establishing peace in the Middle East. OSS 177, whose real name is the not much less preposterous Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, is just the man for these missions: he does not have a clue but his sheer arrogance and luck go a long way in getting what he wants.

The film’s irreverent and witty tone is established early on in sequence in Rome that spoofs Bond’s bed-going antics when OSS finds himself alone in a bedroom with the lovely Egyptian princess Al Tarouk (Aure Atika). Instead of going for the kill, he prefers to abstain. He will meet her again in Egypt, where she will vie for his attention with his local secretary Larmina (Bérénice Bejo), though both may want more -- or other -- things than love. Using a poultry breeding company for cover, OSS sets out to check off the items on his Secret Service shopping list. Not hindered by any knowledge of local customs (though he does know an Arabic song or two), OSS 117 finds himself to be surprisingly “French” when first confronted with the likes of the radical Eagles of Kheops brotherhood and the first sight, or rather sound, of a muezzin calling for morning prayer.

The film's jokes not only take aim at Egyptians, Arabs, the Secret Services, heterosexuals, Nazis and Belgians, but especially the French, who, in their colonial dealings, resemble OSS rather a lot: ear-to-ear smirks, a general cluelessness about local customs and sheer dumb luck that seems to save the day more often than not. The film also scores laughs with its homage to 1960s television series that is felt in its impeccable production design and animated opening sequence, its particularly bad lip-synching (here used effectively for the foreign characters) and wonderfully ostentatious use of bluescreen filming in the car- and desert landscape sequences (think Douglas Sirk times ten). A suitably retro score by Ludovic Bource completes this wonderful comedic package with both nostalgia and a bite.

Boyd van Hoeij named OSS 117 one of the ten Best Films of 2006.

Buy the DVD at: amazon.fr. 

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