Before THE ARTIST There Was OSS 117

Wading through post-Oscar wrap ups I have been amazed to see how many outlets that really should know better have been referring to The Artist star Jean Dujardin as an unknown. Not only is Dujardin an enormous star in his native France, The Artist is not even the first time one of his frequent collaborations with director Michel Hazanavicius - they've worked together four times in the past six years - has had a theatrical release in the United States!

And so, with The Artist racking up the gold last night we cast our eyes back to the duo's first - and, in my opinion, still the best - meeting in 2006 effort OSS 117: Cairo, Nest Of Spies.

Jean Dujardin stars as secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a.k.a. OSS 117 who in the tradition of Maxwell Smart and Inspector Clouseau somehow succeeds in spite of his ineptitude. After a fellow agent and close friend is murdered, Hubert is ordered to take his place at the head of a poultry firm in Cairo. This is to be his cover while he investigates Jack's death, monitors the Suez Canal, checks up on the Brits and Soviets, burnishes France's reputation, quells a fundamentalist rebellion and brokers peace in the Middle East. A blithe and witty send-up not only of spy films of that era and the suave secret agent figure but also neo-colonialism, ethnocentrism and the very idea of Western covert action in the Middle East.

Though there's a definite step down from the first of the duo's OSS 117 revival films to the second I still love this first effort immensely. Check out the trailer below.