Lots of dumb and a few deceptively pointed laughs abound, however, in OSS 117: Lost in Rio, the second instalment of the French spy spoof series. It’s 1967 and the xenophobic, chauvinistic and dimly narcissistic Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath (Jean Dujardin) is OSS 117, France’s finest secret agent. He’s dispatched to Rio to recover a microfilm that details French collaboration with the Nazis during the Second World War. “But President de Gaulle said that everyone in France resisted the Nazis,” frowns a confused Bonisseur as his commander nervously tries to change the subject.
The film is a monument to Gallic self-awareness — Bonisseur tries to seduce sex kittens with talk of cheese — and not only is it funny, it looks and feels fantastic, thanks to its duplication of the breezily kitsch cinematography and direction of Sixties spy flicks, right down to the Technicolor wash.