OSS 117: Le Caire nid d'espions (2006)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Michel Hazanavicius

Writers:

Jean Bruce (certain original characters)
Jean-François Halin (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 May 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Crime

Plot:

Secret agent OSS 117 foils Nazis, beds local beauties, and brings peace to the Middle East.

Plot Keywords:

Agent | Secret Agent | Nazi | Friend | Sequel

Awards:

4 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Jean Dujardin	...	Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, alias OSS 117
Bérénice Bejo	...	Larmina El Akmar Betouche
Aure Atika	...	La princesse Al Tarouk
Philippe Lefebvre	...	Jack Jefferson
Constantin Alexandrov	...	Setine
Saïd Amadis	...	Le ministre égyptien
Laurent Bateau	...	Gardenborough
Claude Brosset	...	Le patron
François Damiens	...	Raymond Pelletier
Youssef Hamid	...	L'imam
Khalid Maadour	...	Le suiveur
Arsène Mosca	...	Loktar
Abdellah Moundy	...	Slimane (as Abdallah Moundy)
Eric Prat	...	Plantieux
Richard Sammel	...	Moeller

Also Known As:

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (USA)

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | France:U | Australia:M | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Brazil:14 | Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Casablanca, Morocco

Company:

Gaumont

Trivia:

Scenes of this film were shot in Casablanca, Morocco, at the "Habuse", a tourist area with many shops as well as homes, with small alleyways. The shopkeepers were paid a days projected income to close shop for the day. One homeowner's doorway was to be prominently featured, but the man would not step out of his doorway. He was trying to squeeze more money out of the producers. As a result, the crew built a back-drop made with some 2X4's and a Moroccan rug. About 20 minutes later several conservative Muslims staged a sit-in to try to get money. The filmmakers decided to shoot elsewhere in the city.

Goofs:

Continuity: In Plantieux's office, Hubert finishes his glass of bourbon, downing the last of it in one gulp. Yet a moment later, without the glass having been refilled, he again finishes his glass of bourbon in the same manner.

Movie Connections:

References North by Northwest (1959)

Soundtrack:

Bambino

Tongue-in-cheek humour

Just saw the movie, it's actually pretty good. The trailers'd left me an impression of either yet another Dujardin one-man-show-turned-film (à la _Brice de Nice_) or an expensive, stupid French comedy. Surprisingly, it's neither. Secret agent OSS 117 is stupid, but at least he sort of knows it, whereas I've always found that James Bond was stupid but acted like a smart arse. Dialogue is witty with a lot of tongue-in-cheek humour that one would expect from a British rather than a French movie. The women and the music are beautiful. A refreshing trip into the past, when the bad guys were ex-Nazis or Soviet brutes, cars were shiny, and France had colonies!