OSS117: Lost In Rio

Films / Gaumont

ICA Films

R2 DVD

French with English subtitles

He’s at it again. France’s top agent, Hubert Bonisseur, known as OSS117, manages to offend the other side of the world in this wonderful Bond spoof. It all starts in Gstaad where, while après-ski partying, he manages to wipe out a clan of Chinese baddies whose relatives thereafter have it in for him.

He is sent on assignment to Rio to recover a microfilm from an ex-Nazi. The French will pay well for the microfilm since it contains a list of names of collaborators from World War II. There is a problem in the form of the Israeli Mossad, who want the ex-Nazi taken to Israel to answer for his war crimes. The local loudmouth CIA agent Bill Trumendous is also interested – the list of names could be useful to pressure France. The Nazis have an unsuspected reason for wanting to kill Bonisseur. The Chinese, of course, just want to kill him for killing their relatives. If he survives all the men (and women) with guns, his fear of heights may just kill him anyway.

Bonisseur’s complete lack of cultural sensitivity comes to the fore once more as he manages to insult Jews, women, Chinese, Brazilians, women, hippies, Nazis, Jews, and especially women. His CIA friend is almost as bad – he is a foulmouthed chauvinist. Bonisseur gets his comeuppance, though. He is given the ultimate insult – he is told that he is old and poorly dressed ! This to a man who wears a Robin Hood outfit to a Nazi gathering !

Fortunately he is assisted by a gun that shoots an unlimited number of shots and only runs out when he is holding Chinese or Nazis at gunpoint. He is also helped by the fact that nobody, Chinese, Nazi or Hubert himself, can shoot straight even at point blank range. As he blunders along through the plot, being politically incorrect at every turn, it is hard to know who’s going to finally get to shoot him.

Once again director Michel Hanavicius gets the Bond feel perfectly right, even down to the way Bonisseur enters an office. Once again he does it in such a subtle way that we can suspect he is spoofing the Bond films, not just copying them. The film is another good laugh for those who remember the Bond days fondly.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 3 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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