OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)

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 & 7 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:

friend | spy | bound and gagged | arms tied overhead | lingerie slip | 

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Taglines:

The Prride of French Intelligence

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Music Box Films [United States] Official site [France]

Country:

France

Language:

French Arabic German

Release Date:

9 May 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

Filming Locations:

Devant la mairie, avenue Mohamed VI, El Djadida, Morocco

Box Office

Budget:

€14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$31,418, 11 May 2008, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$302,752, 12 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

While this movie, which is primarily set in Cairo, Egypt, spoofs Sean Connery's portrayal of James Bond, Connery did not actually appear as James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), the only James Bond movie set in Cairo.

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Goofs

When OSS 117 learns to count in Arabic, Larmina coaches him: "Wahed, Jouj...". She should be counting in Egyptian Arabic, but instead she uses Moroccan Arabic. An Egyptian would not use (or understand) "Jouj" for two. The word is "Itnayn".

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Quotes

Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, alias OSS 117: And I know who you are. You're not a Lebanese reporter based in Rome, but the niece of Egypt's King Farouk.
La princesse Al Tarouk: I'm his niece, but he's no longer king. He was exiled three years ago by the vile Nasser, may the maggot rot in hell!
Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, alias OSS 117: You're pretty vulgar for a pharoah's niece.
La princesse Al Tarouk: My uncle is king. The pharoahs ruled 4000 years ago.

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Connections

Followed by OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009)

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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

The best spoof I've seen on years!

OSS 117 was fun from start to finish.

It's difficult to define why one film touches or connects with you or not, and I won't try to analyze such perfect comedy, so politically incorrect that even academic papers should be dedicated to it :)!

Everything is old fashioned here, from women's clothes (sigh!), Mambo dance, the "hero singing"... ("Bambino" sounds like an Italian canzonetta sung in... arabic :)!).

Hubert is physically imposing, but dumb as hell. From all the 007s, he looks like Sean Connery, but is definitely more sympa because he's... silly, speaks his mind all the time, giggles, even has some homoerotic fantasies and there are rumours about him. In short, as an anti hero, he rocks :)! Sometimes he only raises his eyebrows or frowns, and that's all it takes to make you laugh.

Bérénice Bejo is the true queen of the film. Graceful, treacherous but with ideals. Aure Atika, to the contrary, is reduced to a femme fatale of sorts. It's surprising to see her that "sexy bomb", thou.

You just can't compare it with "Austin Powers"! I agree with Amazon's D. Hartley (Seattle, WA) on it being respectful to the genre.

Which is your favourite scene? One of my favourite scenes is the "fight of the chickens" with the masked villain. But the truly perfect one is when chatting at the cocktail with his contacts, how they all mutter platitudes with confidence... This scene alone makes the comedy genre worthwhile.