New French Cinema-Comedies (2008)

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OSS 117:

Introducing Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, French special agent OSS 117. After the mysterious death of his colleague Jack Jefferson while on assignment in Egypt, OSS 117 is sent in to find the killers. And monitor the Suez Canal. And the British in Cairo. And the Russians too. In fact, save the entire Middle East. Under cover as a poultry fancier, OSS 117-handsome and irresistibly suave, suitably arrogant but culturally clueless-gives his all for his country, in Cairo, in bed and in the dark. Set to a hip-shaking score of arabesque cocktail music, from the minute the credits roll OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies is a side-splitting spoof of the screen's greatest spies from James Bond to Inspector Clouseau, Maxwell Smart to Austin Powers.

The Valet:

Another uproarious comedy from the king of French farce, Francis Veber (THE DINNER GAME, THE CLOSET, TAIS TOI ). When French tycoon Pierre Levasseur (Daniel Auteuil) is spied with his supermodel mistress Elena (Alice Taglioni), the pictures end up on the front page of a Paris daily. Telling his powerful wife Christine (Kristen Scott Thomas)-who holds a controlling stake in the companies he runs- that there must have been a mistake, he declares Elena was actually with the other fellow in the photo. Trying to keep one step ahead of his dubious wife, Pierre engineers it so a naive car-park valet, Veber's recurring fool François Pignon (Gad Elmaleh), appears to be Elena's boyfriend, moving her into his flat and his life. As Pierre's web of deceit widens, so do the possibilities of discovery-and with them disaster after hilarious disaster.

Priceless:

Irène (Audrey Tautou) is an old-fashioned gold-digger, seducing rich older men in return for dresses, trinkets and baubles. When she mistakes shy barman Jean (Gad Elmaleh) for one of her usual prey, she is abhorred to discover his lowly status and flees to the Riviera. Jean tags along hopefully but Irène proceeds to viciously bleed him dry before unceremoniously dumping him. But when a rich older woman adopts Jean as her plaything, Irène becomes intrigued and starts to instruct him in her dark arts...

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Vanessa A	Nil known	$39.95