Four years before 007, French super-spy OSS 117 donned a tuxedo, treated women and foreigners with clueless contempt and muddled his way through Cold War espionage circles. Jean Bruce wrote 265 OSS 117 novels, selling some 75 million copies and spawning seven movies between 1956 and 1970.
Revisiting the character and putting a modern spin on his anachronistic attitudes might seem old hat in the wake of Austin Powers. But
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
proves there's always room for one more spy spoof, provided you get the details right.
Director Michel Hazanavicius and screenwriter Jean-Francois Halin have steered the film away from the coarseness of the
Austin Powers
movies toward something a bit more elegant and cinematic, though still shamelessly silly.
The filmmakers plug into the chauvinistic, colonialist vibe of Bruce's books and the era itself, though they stop short of sharply critiquing the attitudes. Everything can be chalked up to a certain Clouseau-like obliviousness, which star Jean Dujardin brings off with a perfect, poker-faced delivery.
OSS 117 (Dujardin) comes to Cairo to investigate the death of his friend and fellow agent, Jack Jefferson (Philippe Lefebvre). In a great running gag, we watch repeated flashbacks of OSS 117 and Jefferson romping around the beach; their seaside reverie implying that their relationship might have gone beyond mere friendship.
Once in Cairo, OSS 117 hooks up with the lovely Larmina El Akmar Betouche (Berenice Bejo), assigned to help the French agent navigate the titular ''nest of spies.'' She finds the assignment difficult, recoiling at OSS 117's dismissive comments about her country (he finds it too dusty) and her religion. (''It won't last long,'' he says of Islam.)
His arrogance is most memorably captured when, on his first night in Cairo, OSS 117 is awakened at dawn by a muezzin's call to prayer.
After screaming, ''Shut the (bleep) up,'' the French agent leaves his room and heads toward the tower to silence the ''ruckus.''
There's also something of a plot here, as well as spot-on production design (which won a Cesar, the French equivalent of an Oscar) and a sparkling score. Hazanavicius has style to burn and an obvious enthusiasm for the material. No word yet whether a follow-up is planned, but something tells me this isn't the last we've heard of OSS 117.
Four years before 007, French super-spy OSS 117 donned a tuxedo, treated women and foreigners with clueless contempt and muddled his way through Cold War espionage circles. Jean Bruce wrote 265 OSS 117 novels, selling some 75 million copies and spawning seven movies between 1956 and 1970.
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