646f9e108c Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, aka OSS 117, is the French spy considered by his superiors to be the best in the business. The year is 1967 - he&#39;s been sent on a mission to Rio de Janeiro, to find a former high-ranking Nazi who went into exile in South America after the war. His eventful investigation takes him all across Brazil, from Rio to Brasilia and the Iguazu Falls, accompanied by a charming Mossad agent who is also looking for the Nazi. The man is charming, and so is the young woman. Set to the strains of bossa nova, their tale is by turns an adventure and a love story. One of the constants of the French Film Festival over the years has been the presence of the bumbling secret agent OSS 117 and his misadventures in keeping the world free of the spectre of communism and Nazis. This time he finds himself in Rio, on the trail of a former Nazi who is blackmailing the French Government with a microfilm list of wartime collaborators. &quot;It must be a very short list,&quot; our hero remarks. He is aided and abetted by a beautiful Mossad agent who has her own agenda to follow. Jean Dujardin has stamped his own style on the role of the arrogant, sexist, racist, misogynistic, politically incorrect globe trotting spy Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath. The film is a blatant spoof of the&#39;60&#39;s cycle of spy films, suchJames Bond and Matt Helm, etc, and is shot in glorious retro style reminiscent of the era. Michel Hazanavicius&#39; direction lacks subtlety and the broad humour sometimes misses its mark. However, OSS 117: Lost In Rio is low brow fun and full of in-jokes and references to classic films of the genre. A spy spoof where the hero is a low-brow and self-important tough guy? Well, we&#39;re nowhere close to a genius idea, yet it proves to be a really fine approach when depicting racial/sexual prejudices in that big jaw-dropping mouth of OSS117.<br/><br/>Unfortunately he will never be made to look altogether ridiculous. His female sidekick has the unredeeming part of standing one foot in reality while listening to the French agent&#39;s abysmal puns without ever punching him in the mouth.<br/><br/>All this stuffy stuff is a big joke, OSS117 is a funny a**hole (at least he thinks he&#39;s funny) and nothing is serious. The movie ends upstupidits main character, except for a couple of fine one-liners. I suppose we can call this a successlongthere is an audience willing to revere in dumb and dumber bouts of action canned with zero respect for the craft of visual storytelling. A full bag of (mostly) terrible jokes will never make up for the skills of polishing a storyline and building characters, even stupid characters. Even more über stupid characters. Mr. Dujardin, a skilled comedian, deftly embodies the spy's combination of cluelessness and condescension, but it's an act that eventually wears thin.
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364 weeks ago