OSS 117: CAIRO NEST OF SPIES Review

As tempting as it is to label Michel Hazanavicius’ recent French spy comedy a parody of 1970’s globe hopping spy flicks – and, yes, I am absolutely thinking of a certain high profile Ian Fleming creation – doing so would somehow seem to lessen what OSS 117 really is. Parody these days means the endless parade of Scary Movie flicks or, in this particular realm, another stab at Austin Powers, films that poke fun at a genre from the outside looking in. What Hazanavicius has created, however, is something entirely different: OSS 117 is every inch a loving recreation of the films it is looking back on. Rather than make fun of a genre everyone involved here clearly loves – and loves dearly – they have instead brought a popular literary character, equal parts Connery era Bond and Sellers Pink Panther antics, to the screen in an astonishingly note perfect recreation of the films of the era. If not for the satiric edge laced throughout the film’s plot – a savage knock on western meddling in and ignorance of middle eastern affairs – this could easily be a lost treasure of the seventies.

Jean Dujardin is agent OSS 117, a French secret agent who travels the globe protecting the interests of the nation he loves. He is suave and debonair, an excellent fighter and capable lover. He would be a perfect spy if not for his one great weakness: a supreme and misplaced confidence in his own superiority. When his friend and long time partner goes missing while on a mission in Egypt, OSS 117 is sent in to discover what happened to his friend, discover the information that put his compatriot at risk in the first place and establish a lasting peace in the middle east. No problem, right?

OSS 117 is clearly out of his element. The Germans, Russians, English and Americans are positioning for power behind the scenes. A ship loaded with weaponry has gone missing. The niece of the deposed Egyptian king is plotting some sort of power move. Conservative religious factions are threatening violence. And into this complicated stew of conflicting rivalries walks our hero, posing as a chicken farmer, declaring that the problem with Arabic is that it’s impossible to read and why can’t the Egyptians use a civilized, sensible alphabet? And what do you mean that Islam forbids you to drink alcohol? What sort of silly religion would do that? It’s just a fad faith that you’ll grow out of and replace with something better. You can see where this is going, to be sure, and before long the French agent has triggered a full on jihad rather than bringing about peace.

Smart, stylish, very funny and blessed with an absolutely note perfect cast – Dujardin is simply stellar in the lead role - OSS 117 pays tribute to the past while also keeping an eye on the present. The women are beautiful and deadly, the locations exotic, the villains memorable and the hero never messes his hair. It looks and feels exactly like a product of the seventies with a remarkable attention to period detail and yet the script is smart and subtle enough to point out the foibles of that era – there’s a hysterically funny homoerotic subtext played throughout – and the political biases both of that time and our own without ever breaking the period image it wants to project. The satiric edge – the hero’s middle east bumblings and innocent belief in French cultural superiority are a clear and potent dig at current western middle eastern policies and practices – is sharp without being overbearing. Most of all this film is just pure entertainment from start to finish. Smarts, style and entertainment in one package? I’m sold.