The Daily Weekly News, Politics, and Media

Deal on Parking Refunds
Posted May 09; 04:02 pm

Reverb Music & Nightlife

Last Night: Minus the Bear Redeem Themselves
Posted May 09; 01:22 pm

Voracious Food News and Reviews

Wondering what to do with that refund check?
Posted May 09; 02:11 pm

Thread Count Arts, People, and Style

This Weekend: An Opening, and Two Talks
Posted May 09; 04:20 pm

Buzzer Beater Seattle Sports

Supe Free Agent Target: Jose Calderon
Posted May 09; 04:52 pm


Slideshows

Newsletters

Stay up-to-date with the Seattle Weekly. We'll e-mail you a detailed rundown of what's on seattleweekly.com once a week.

Signing up is simple and you can opt out anytime. Give it a try.

Web Feeds

Use one of the buttons below to subscribe to Seattle Weekly's full Web feed. Or choose from our full list of Web feeds.

- For Newsreaders

- For Home Pages

Free Classifieds Seattle, WA

Seattle Weekly PickOSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

The Best Spy Spoof Since Austin Powers

By Brian Miller

May 7, 2008

Music Box Films

Béjo reluctantly dances with OSS dunce Dujardin.

Extra Info

Runs at Varsity, Fri., May 9–Thurs., May 15. Not rated. 99 minutes.

Two years after winning the audience prize at SIFF, this hilarious French spy spoof arrives like a breath of dry martini–chilled air from 1955. Before Ian Fleming devised 007, long before Mike Myers was born (later to conceive Austin Powers), French agent OSS 117 was a pulpy sensation in countless espionage novels and several movies. Now the character has been revived in all his sexist, chauvinist, colonialist, DeGaullist, oblivious glory—a nattily dressed secret agent who doesn't know the first thing about the world outside his Parisian tailor's shop, nor does he care to learn. Upon arrival in Egypt, Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath (Jean Dujardin) is yawningly incredulous that people speak Arabic—not French? Zut alors!—and worship a strange god. This whole Islam thing, he predicts, it'll never last. Though assigned a chic local assistant (Bérénice Béjo), and attracting notice from a sexy princess (Aure Atika), our man in Cairo is mainly confounded by the chicken plant he must run as a cover for his covert operations. And he's haunted by the memory of his dead WWII buddy Jack, with whom he played many a manly, joyous paddleball game on the beach, then wrestled ecstatically in the surf. Oh, how they laughed together, Hubert and Jack! Laughed! My favorite comedy from 2006, OSS 117 is deliciously and authentically textured with the cheesy rear-screen projection, tailored JFK suits, and trim Jackie dresses of the era, but its innocent period ignorance of the world still resonates. As an incurious, self-assured, prosperous idiot barges his way through a foreign culture he doesn't understand, making enemies and offending the natives at every turn, I remember thinking to myself at SIFF, it's like we're living through the sequel today. Only not as comedy.

Comments (0)

Reader Comments

No comments.

* indicates required fields. Please enable browser cookies before filling out this form. All reader comments are subject to our Terms of Use. By clicking Add Comment, you acknowledge that you have reviewed and agree to these Terms.




(Characters are case sensitive)

Comments may take a few moments to process and appear on the site. Please do not click the "Add Comment" button again while your comment is being added.

More "Review"

More >>
Most 
Popular

I’m (Not) With Busey

News By Aimee Curl

Help Or I’ll Shoot

News By Laura Onstot

The Silver Bullet of Seattle Street Food

Food By Jesse Froehling

A Tea Two-fer

Food By Maggie Dutton

How Seattle Could Have Saved Jerry Garcia

Food By Mike Seely
now click this

Travel
Pacific Northwest Getaways

Seattle Home Search
1000's of Listings and Detailed Neighborhood Information

Seattle Weekly Online Career Fair!
Where People & Jobs Find Each Other.

Sound Living ®
Seattle Metro Real Estate


To Do List

Monday, May 12

Dorothy Rissman
Much to the chagrin of her Wallingford neighbors, Dorothy Rissman began dum... More>>
Fetherston Gallery, Daily from Mon., April 21 until Sat., May 24, 11:00am

Correo Aereo
On Monday nights, when most restaurants declare a day of rest, there’s... More>>
Agua Verde Cafe and Paddle Club, Every week Monday, 6:30pm, free

The History of Fashion in Flight
“If the airline industry had a baby book, 1930 would surely be an impo... More>>
Museum of Flight, Daily from Sat., February 9 until Mon., June 2

57 more things to do today>>
Find a Restaurant

 
A work of love from charismatic man-about-town Waid Sainvil, Waid's is the only Haitian restaurant o...
Off the Delridge Way exit from the West Seattle Bridge, Skylark Cafe & Club is a genuine blue-collar...
The Northlake Tavern is proud to tell you that its small pie weighs more than two-and-a-half pounds ...
Entering Can Can is like walking into Moulin Rouge—not the Parisian tourist trap, the Baz Luhrmann m...
Find a Concert

Monday, May 12
Our Top Picks
Check out our Digital Jukebox!
Find a Movie

Find a Theater

Find a Club

The groan-inducingly named Thai One On in Lake City dims its lights and switches on the speakers at ...
Seattle resident Gabe Morgan was once in a constant mental, physical, and psychological battle with ...
I haven't eaten much steak this summer because I'm usually broke. When I discovered Ozzie's Wednesda...
Pure, unadulterated joy is the look permanently affixed to the face of a man doing the mambo to the ...
It's Saturday night between 10th and 11th on Pike Street, Capitol Hill's bustling new epicenter. The...
national

Headlines from Coast to Coast

The Pitch

We (Heart) Matt

The Shawnee Mission East class of '08 loves its gay homecoming king. More >>

Broward-Palm Beach New Times

Things That Go Bump on the Flight

Something went horribly wrong on American Airlines Flight 48--and we've got the pictures to prove it. More >>

Cleveland Scene

The Artful Dodger

Women loved Zachary Coleman. And he loved their money. More >>