French actor Jean Dujardin came to most Americans’ attention when he started in The Artist, the silent film set in the 1920s that came out a few years ago. He’s done a decent number of historical films, and I was reminded of his skills when I watched his Bond parodies, OSS 117, and seriously cracked up. So let’s run him down!
Le Cow-Boy Vanneur in Lucky Luke and the Daltons (2004)
Some kind of French comedy Western. I don’t know, Europeans LOVE the American West in a way I don’t totally get.
Valentin in Il ne faut jurer… de rien! (2005)
An adaptation of a French novel from 1830, in which caddish Valentin (Dujardin) tries to seduce a baroness.
Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, alias OSS 117 in OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)
The OSS 117 series consists of several Bond spoof films that are LAUGH OUT LOUD hilarious. Dujardin plays Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, code name OSS 117, and he is all arrogance and swagger. In this film, he’s sent to Cairo where he “foils Nazis, beds local beauties, and brings peace to the Middle East,” per IMDB. Also, there’s a chicken factory involved. My only critique is that this one is set in the late 1950s and the women’s costumes lean more early 1960s.
Lucky Luke in Lucky Luke (2009)
Another Western. No idea.
OSS 117 in OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009)
Another Bond spoof, this time set in Rio.
George Valentin in The Artist (2011)
Set between 1927 and 1932, this part-silent, part-talkie film is shot in black & white and tells the story of a rising young Hollywood actress and an older silent film star during the transition between silent film and talkies.
Jean Claude Clermont in The Monuments Men (2014)
A group of Allied soldiers are tasked with finding art and other culturally important works and saving them from the Nazis during World War II.
Capitaine Charles-Grégoire Neuville in Return of the Hero (2018)
This has been in my Amazon queue forever. It’s a French comedy set in 1809 about a woman whose fiancé goes off to the Napoleonic wars and then returns.
Picquart in An Officer and a Spy (2019)
The story real-life Dreyfus Affair (1894-1906), in which a French army officer was falsely accused of spying for the Germans. Dujardin plays the military officer who tries to clear Dreyfus’s name.
OSS 117 in OSS 117: From Africa with Love (2021)
The third in the OSS 117 series, which I haven’t seen yet! I’m guessing it’s set in the late 1960s?
What’s your favorite of Jean Dujardin’s frock flick roles?
“OSS 117” is always culturally inappropriate, that’s why it’s fun ! He’s supposed to be the hero, but have all the defaults.
“Le retour du héros” is a very nice comedy, “à la Jane Austen”. Jean Dujardin is a very good actor, so he saves the movie because Mélanie Laurent plays very badly.
(And no, Jean Dujardin is not in the line of the first “Lucky Luke” : it’s a comedy adapted from a comic book)
Emma ! ^^
In order to add a little information to the article, yes “OSS 117” is a James Bond parody in a way… now. But the original novels were published in the late 40’s, the first OSS film adaptation is from the 50’s, mainwhile the first Bond novel was published in the 50’s and its first adaptation is from the 60’s… And Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath is a very “frenchy-frenchy” character : a James Bond parody, yes, but also and above all a “satire” of french traits.
(I’m French, so I can relate ^^)
“Lucky Luke” is a series of French comics (BandesDessinées, or BDs) which were hugely popular and are still in print. The central character is really part of French culture – you find the books shelved with “Astérix” and accorded the same level of respect.
The Lucky Luke series could be pretty funny (and a good way to learn colloquial French), full of Old-West parodies: I remember a Mae West take-off named Lulu Carbine, who would announce to her entertainers/whores, “Ladies! Ambience!” when a brawl broke out in her saloon.
Oh my goodness!! Reading the title ‘Lucky Luke’ takes me back to my teenage years in 1983-1984. When the 🇨🇵French comic hero, could be seen on 🇳🇱Dutch TV (in 26 episodes). Even Terence Hill starred as “Lucky Luke” back in a 1991 film.
Never read the comic: as we were a “comic-strip-free-home”😉…only “real” books😅. But I remember many school friends had the comics of 🇨🇵 ‘Lucky Luke’, 🇨🇵 ‘Astrix & Obelix’ and 🇧🇪’Kuifje’ (aka Belgian ‘Tintin’).
I’m not sure if it counts as a proper ‘Frock Flick’ entry, but Jean Dujardin’s episode in ‘Dix pour Cent/Call my Agent’ had him refusing to remove his WWI uniform, and living in a trench in his garden (Dujardin/in the garden pun).
And I am another Lucky Luke fan, although of course Asterix is still my favourite!
I’ve only seen him in The Monuments Men. I liked that film. Like many Americans, I became aware of him when The Artist debuted. Even so, all these years later, I still haven’t seen that movie. He is so classically handsome! I didn’t know he had such a deep Frock Flicks resume. Great MCM choice!
Last Oss 117 movie is set in 1981 . But Oss 117 character is supposed to be completly out of date, still thinking he’s in his glory days.
Ok that sounds hilarious!
Monsieur Dujardin is unquestionably dapper in THE ARTIST (and elsewhere), but the late Clark ‘King of Hollywood’ Gable went to his grave bearing cinema’s most famous moustache and deserves far better than to be ignored in favour of the consistently clean-shaven Cary Grant! (-;