OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)
"OSS 117: Le Caire, nid d'espions" (original title)

Secret agent OSS 117 foils Nazis, beds local beauties, and brings peace to the Middle East.

Director:

Michel Hazanavicius

Writers:

Jean-François Halin (scenario), Jean Bruce (novel),

Stars:

Jean Dujardin, François Damiens, Khalid Maadour

4 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jean Dujardin	...	Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, alias OSS 117
François Damiens	...	Raymond Pelletier
Khalid Maadour	...	Le suiveur
Youssef Hamid	...	L'imam
Arsène Mosca	...	Loktar
Constantin Alexandrov	...	Setine
Claude Brosset	...	Le patron
Laurent Bateau	...	Gardenborough
Saïd Amadis	...	Le ministre égyptien
Eric Prat	...	Plantieux
Abdellah Moundy	...	Slimane (as Abdallah Moundy)
Philippe Lefebvre	...	Jack Jefferson
Richard Sammel	...	Moeller
Aure Atika	...	La princesse Al Tarouk
Bérénice Bejo	...	Larmina El Akmar Betouche

Storyline

An homage to classic spy films. It's 1955 and after a fellow agent and close friend disappears, secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a.k.a. OSS 117, is ordered to take his place at the head of a poultry firm in Cairo. This is to be his cover while he is busy investigating, foiling Nazi holdouts, quelling a fundamentalist rebellion, and bedding local beauties.

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Plot Keywords:

agent | nazi | secret agent | spy | friend | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime

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Details

Official Sites:

Music Box Films [us] Official site [fr]

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

9 May 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

Filming Locations:

Casablanca, Morocco

Box Office

Budget:

€14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$31,418 (USA) (9 May 2008)

Gross:

$302,752 (USA) (10 October 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gaumont, Mandarin Films, M6 Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For the German version, Jean Dujardin was dubbed by Oliver Kalkofe who also wrote the dubbing script.

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Goofs

The movie is set in 1955. The song "Guaglione" (aka "Bambino"), of which Hubert sings an Arabic version, was written and recorded for the first time in 1956.

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Connections

Spoofed in Beauties at War (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Un clair de Lune à Maubeuge"
Written by Pierre Perrin (as P. Perrin), Claude Blondy (as C.L. Blondy)
© LES EDITIONS MUSICALES CARAVELLE
Avec l'aimable autorisation de Universal Music Projets Spéciaux

User Reviews

Hilarious and Irreverent

I just saw this film last night, and I have to say that I loved every minute. If taken in the spirit of a parody of Bond-esquire films, it's truly superior. The true comedy of the film is in its blatant disregard for political correctness. The misogyny, cultural insensitivity, and almost laughable macho-ism of the films of this genre are used for major comic effect. It also calls the illogic and formulaic elements to task, with Agent OSS 117 constantly learning difficult things insanely quick (such as Arabic and how to play a traditional instrument) while missing some pathetically obvious clues. Some of the lines from the film left me laughing for hours after the movie was finished...and I have to say I have learned some...interesting...French vocabulary that would probably have my Professors quite exasperated with me were I to use. All in all, I thought this film excellent. Intensely funny and the first film I've ever seen that truly parodies all aspects of the spy film.