OSS 117

#OSS117

To my surprise I found a twitter hashtag for a film that I like for all the wrong reasons! Max my little son said I was not ranting – so here is some strong enthusiasm for the French film OSS 117 staring the now very famous Oscar winning Jean Dujardin.

In the Oxfam shop in Ludlow mooching around and picking up anything vaguely German or French I found among the DVD’s Cairo Nest of Spies. (Last week they had the complete box set of the first Heimat series for £20 – aaaah as I already have it.) This was a French comedy “Infinitely superior to Get Smart” which was an awful TV series/film  – but it was £2 and a chance to learn some more French – and the possibility that it might be funny. It turned out to be really funny. There were even character actors from the Luc Besson Taxi films.

Office of Strategic Services (OSS) really existed and was set up by the Americans during the war as a spy network. Like Ian Fleming, but well before him, Jean Bruce saw the potential for some good spy fiction based on the real thing. His first book was published in 1949 Bond appeared in 1953. There was a series of films based on the OSS books.

The Dujardin films are spoofs of the earlier spy thrillers. Looking very much like Sean Connery in ‘le smoking’ he has an amazing screen presence and charisma which steels every scene. The dialogue is slick and in places there is some astute political satire. On the other hand sometimes the film is outrageously un P.C. and plain crass. I’m not sure why copies of the film are not being burnt and a fatwa issued.

Dujardin’s hapless character disguised as a musician finds himself forced to perform a solo. The song he nervously stumbles into is a classic French 50’s number one made popular by the adopted Egyptian siren Dalida  - Bambino. It is one of those irritating songs with a stupid refrain that is impossible to get out of your head. Just like the Girl from Ipanema.

An interesting film for many reasons.