First Images From French Spy Comedy OSS 117: RIO NE REPOND PLUS!

A trailer would be better but, oh, it does my heart good to post these: the first two images to be released from upcoming French spy comedy OSS 117: Rio Ne Repond Plus. The second film in a revival of a French series that spanned the 60s and 70s - my glowing review of the first revival picture is here - Rio Ne Repond Plus brings back brilliant French comedian Jean Dujardin as the archetypal 1960s spy and ladies man and the promo that screened at AFM made it very clear that this picture is in no way a step back from the previous.

The appeal of the OSS films is a little hard to explain but I'll take a stab at it. First of all the films are a brilliant, absolutely note perfect recreation of the late 1960s and early 1970s. From film stock to set design to wardrobe and physical mannerisms everything about these pictures is absolutely flawless. You could very easily be watching an actual lost film from that era and on a technical level that is a fairly astounding feat. But more than that it is the character as embodied by Dujardin. Our hero in these films is both a brilliant spy and total buffoon, a man so secure in his belief in the male dominated world view of the 1950s - to say nothing of his own superiority over everything and everyone around him - that he is completely, utterly, blissfully unaware that the world is changing around him and that he is increasingly out of step with reality. Somehow these films avoid slapstick and parody and end up with unusually good natured satire. These are just clever, charming, crowd pleasing bits of work.

With the release of this one coming in April more materials - hopefully including a trailer - should be arriving on the scene soon but in the meantime hit the link below for a larger version of the poster plus the first proper still.