Jean Dujardin
It's hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys in this slick, densely plotted thriller from France. Cash (Jean Dujardin) is a suave and well-mannered outlaw who specializes in grand-scale heists that turn on carefully constructed confidence games as much as muscle. When Cash's brother and partner in crime Solal (Clovis Cornillac) is killed by members of a rival outfit who try to force their way into a carefully planned heist, Cash assembles a new crew to rob the gunmen for their ill-gotten gains. Cash joins forces with Maxime Dubreuil (Jean Reno), a gifted veteran thief who brings along his beautiful protégé Garance (Alice Taglioni). As Cash, Maxime and Garance map out plans for the robbery of a lifetime, they're joined by Julia (Valeria Golino), a beautiful woman with a full compliment of criminal skills. But what they don't know is that Julia is actually an undercover police officer who is looking to shut down Cash's operation from the inside. Cash was written and directed by Eric Besnard; it was his second feature as director after establishing himself as one of France's leading screenwriters. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Dujardin, Jean Reno, (more)
- 2007
Veteran screenwriter Franck Mancuso (36 Quai des Orfevres) helmed and penned the script for the French-language detective thriller Counter-Investigation (AKA Contre-enquête), loosely adapting for the screen American writer Lawrence Block's short story "Like a Bone in the Throat." The chilly tale unfolds in the Parisian suburbs, where happily married police captain Richard (Jean Dujardin) makes the fatal decision to pass up an opportunity for a bike ride with his nine-year-old daughter Emilie (Alexandra Goncalvez), in favor of department business. During Richard's absence, Emilie slips out for a rendez-vous with a young boy of like age - and not long after, joggers discover her body in the woods, raped and beaten to death, the victim of an apparent maniac. Richard's partners arrest the most likely suspect, pedophile Daniel Eckmann (Laurent Lucas) who first denies, then confirms his involvement. In time, however, Daniel writes long letters to Richard from prison, pleading his innocence and pointing to another culprit - the serial killer Salinas (Jean-Francois Garreaud). As an initially reluctant Richard investigates, his astonishment builds upon coming face-to-face with the conclusion that all of the evidence does indeed point to Salinas; to his wife's (Agnes Blanchot) chagrin, the detective thus works toward exonerating Daniel and arraigning Salinas for the death of his young daughter. Contre-enquête represents Mancuso's first directorial assignment; as a screenwriter, he takes a number of liberties with the story, making the necessary cultural adjustments for a French setting. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Dujardin, Laurent Lucas, (more)
OSS 117: Cairo -- Nest of Spies constitutes the eighth installment in a long-running series of movies about OSS 117 (the government code name for Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath) -- a French super-spy and European equivalent of James Bond. The creation of author Jean Bruce, OSS eventually starred in over 265 novels and seven cinematizations through 1970. The first seven film outings were sober and straight-faced; the eighth go-round (the first after a 38-year lapse) does a 180 to shamelessly poke fun of the rules established by the genre. A glib yet intelligent spoof, it joins the ranks of Our Man Flint (1965), Aghaye Hallou (1970), Mad Mission 3: Our Man from Bond Street (1984), and other international pictures that glibly satirize the subgenre made infamous to Americans by Bond; like Mad Mission 3, it even packs in an OSS 117 (Jean Dujardin) with a startling resemblance to Sean Connery. The film's comic conceit involves making OSS 117 arrogant, conceited, culturally insensitive, chauvinistic, and thoroughly moronic (he pretends that various cultural institutions and religious practices, for instance, are nonexistent if he is unfamiliar with them); yet the character somehow manages to slide through outrageously dangerous situations unscathed, time and again. The teaser prologue finds OSS 117 in Berlin, where he outwits the Nazis by stealing vital documents from them, hijacks an Axis plane in mid-nosedive, and saves himself and the craft at the last yawning moment. Ten years later, he journeys from Rome to Cairo, where he investigates the death of a fellow agent, posing as the proprietor of a chicken farm. His "side" activities during this jaunt involve hammering out a peace arrangement for the Middle East, keeping tabs on the Suez Canal, and monitoring the Russians. Jean-François Halin scripted the film, maintaining an utterly deadpan tone throughout; Michel Hazanavicius directed. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, (more)
- 2003
Francis Palluau's directorial debut Bienvenue Chez les Rozes (Welcome to the Rozes) is a comedy about a hostage situation. Gilbert (Lorant Deutsch) and MG (Jean Dujardin) escape from prison and end up hiding out at the home of Daniel and Beatrice Roze (André Wilms and Carole Bouquet), who are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. MG takes everyone hostage in order to get money owed to him from the theft that put him in jail, and the Rozes do not seem to be perturbed at all by the evening's turn of events. Clemence Poesy rounds out the cast as Magali, the daughter of Daniel and Beatrice. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carole Bouquet, André Wilms, (more)
