Michel Hazanavicius’s OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)

Film Club is proud to present tonight’s guest commentator, M. Aimeric Lajuzan, Upper School French teacher. M. Lajuzan graduated from the University of Toulouse, where he studied geography and sociology, and moved to the United States in 2006. This country is lucky to have him. The expertise of the French is well known, for there is nothing that they do not know, and their superiority, both intellectually and culturally, must be acknowledged. For example, the French have been the only people in the world sophisticated enough to recognize the comic genius in the films of Jerry Lewis. For this reason, we have asked M. Lajuzan to opine about tonight’s film.

OSS 117 is the best French parody of a spy movie ever made.

The last years of colonialism were a rough time for the best country in the world. The image of a unified French colonial empire harmoniously working to the beat of La Marseillaise was put to the test as local populations rose up to claim independence. The idea that millions of people around the world wanted to be French was fading and countries around the world emancipated following World War II. This part of History sets the scene for Michel Hazanavicius’s recent film OSS 117: Le Caire, Nid d’Espions, which portrays the adventures of Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath (UBDLB), special agent sent on a secret mission to Egypt for the glory of France and its (now completely forgotten) president René Coty.

UBDLB is not Austin Powers (Mike Myers’ character parodying James Bond and the mod England of the ‘60s) nor Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers’ bumbling character from Blake Edwards’ Pink Panther films); he is Sean Connery … but French. He is incredibly self-confident, sexy, and smart; all these things that make us French so popular around the world. When information is faulty (wait! there are Muslims in North Africa?!?), he improvises and gets through problems unharmed. He might offend a person or two or twenty, but it is clear to any Frenchman that those people are just too sensitive. Everyone knows that no other civilization but the French has ever reached perfection, so why would they want to discuss it?

OSS 117 is best watched in French but for some reason there are people who don’t speak this beautiful language and need subtitles. (This is shameful. For centuries English kings spoke French. The founding fathers of the United States spoke French, which served well when they took field trips to France to get assistance in writing their little constitution and Bill of Rights. And you will notice that, in the movie, even the Nazis speak French. Is it too much to expect ordinary film-goers to have some respect and know this language?)

So enjoy this lampooning of French smugness movie in which French culture is captured so accurately and with such reverence. It may be the last time a movie does so.

Monsieur A. Lajuzan
Guest Film Club Commentator
SPA French Dept.