by wanting to mock political correctness, the secret agent misses his target

THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – WHY NOT

Directed by Nicolas Bedos, OSS 117: Red alert in black Africa seeks to make us laugh yellow, to make us laugh boldly, or with full throats according to the gags, by plunging the aging secret agent (Jean Dujardin) in France of the beginning of the 1980s, in the good old days will say some where the you could say everything about women, blacks, etc. The action takes place at the end of the mandate (1974-1981) of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, when the prospect of the election of François Mitterrand, in May 1981, frightened the people of the right.

This shift, even temporal telescoping, in the scenario of Jean-François Halin makes it possible to measure the distance traveled by French society over the last forty years and, conversely, to grasp the appalling stagnation of the character, Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, created by the author Jean Bruce in 1949. By ricochet, Nicolas Bedos sends a paving stone in the pond of what he calls the “political correctness” of the #metoo era. It is in this tension between two worlds, the one where we let go and the one where we hold back, that the actor and director tries to open up new horizons to the super-agent. But the paths are well marked.

In this third opus, after the two parts directed by Michel Hazanavicius, OSS 117: Cairo’s nest of spies (2006), then OSS 117: Rio no longer responds (2009), the super-agent has lead in the wing: he is soft, his sexist jokes scare women away and his ordinary racism gets him in trouble. He is completely overwhelmed by the new recruit OSS 1001 (Pierre Niney), a smart young man, curious and respectful of the other, who was flanked to him for his new mission in Africa. It is about eradicating the communist opponents who threaten the reign of President Bamba (Habib Dembélé).

A bit flat plot

The film opens like a James Bond: OSS 117, taken prisoner by enemies, breaks free and arrives, heroically, in the premises of the agency, at the very beginning of January 1981. When a colleague wish him a happy new year, he replies “Me too”, while putting a hand to the buttocks here and there. A little later, as if the character were sending a message directly to the spectator, OSS 117 cowardly, in the second degree: “What a relief to finally be able to speak freely” … When it comes to Africa, the inevitable phrase will come out of his mouth, something like: “Blacks are nice, they dance well …”

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