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.

Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale (2006)

James Bond is part of our modern mythology. Part superhero, part id, Bond has chronicled our wish fulfillment fantasies since Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel appeared in 1953 -- fast cars, faster women, high-tech gadgets, encyclopedic knowledge, the defeat of evil in the face of insurmountable odds, grace, and wit.

Through the movies starring Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and now Daniel Craig, the Bond film has developed such a recognizable formula and traits that even people who haven’t seen the films know the details, that he likes his martinis “shaken, not stirred,” that he introduces himself by saying “Bond, James Bond,” that double-0 means he has a “license to kill,” that he must travel to at least three exotic locales in order to complete his mission, that each movie has a scene in which he gets new weapons (from a guy named Q) which will come in handy before the final scene, that “Bond villains” and “Bond girls” (both “good” and “bad,” and there’s always one of each) are specific character genres. Maybe one reason we love Bond is because each new adventure brings us more of the same.

Yet Bond is also a chameleon. Perhaps each decade gets a Bond that reflects it – a sexist, cold war Bond in the 60s, a “what, me worry?” leisure-suited Bond in the 70s, a multi-media Bond in the 90s. Fittingly, Casino Royale (2006) gives us an entirely new Bond placed back at square one of the Bond chronology. And that is what we recommend you pay attention to in this film – how Casino Royale can reject much of the Bond formula while still paying homage to it. Daniel Craig’s Bond, for example, is as unflappable as any of his predecessors, but he also bleeds and suffers more than any previous Bond. Likewise, Craig’s Bond is as much a womanizer as those who went before, but he also gets seriously monogamous in this film. This latter adjustment lends the film a much needed romantic facet, not seen since Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service although other Bonds pretended at times to less blatant wolfish behavior. While the espionage and action exploits make him superhuman, the romance makes him human, someone you can really care about. And face it, as much as you may have liked Brosnan or even Connery, did you really care about their Bonds? Craig’s Bond sustains a lot of visible physical wounds (for maybe the first time since Sean Connery), but he also sustains clear psychic wounds. That kind of vulnerability is rare in a film Bond.

What Casino Royale also does well is ask (and answer) the question: who is James Bond? Enjoy the enigmatic nature of his ingenuity. People in this film are surprised that he is capable of thinking. They think of him as a “blunt instrument,” and he certainly acts like he is one. But the movie is full of sly, how-did-he-do-that moments.

Confession time: I love Bond. My favorite is Sean Connery. And I think Goldfinger is the peak of the Bond films. Casino Royale opened my eyes to a new Bond, one I like a lot. This film is a keeper, not just in the Bond pantheon, but on any shelf of best action films.

R. Findlay
Film Club Adviser