Excessively good!
Author: mjsinclair from Switzerland
19 November 2007
This is a satirical black comedy about the hedonistic excesses of the prima donnas of the advertising world. Octave (Jean Dujardin) is the king of this world, feted and pampered, idolised by his entourage, showered with drugs, women and money, his life is one long over indulgent party, punctuated by the occasional brush with reality.
He comes down to earth with a bump when his girlfriend announces that she is pregnant, but unable to deal with the consequences of this real life problem, he takes flight into even more excessively decadent diversions. More parties, more drugs, more indolence. However his body inevitably calls "time out" from this constant abuse, and when he is hospitalised with an overdose, he begins to take stock of his life.
The film is full to bursting, overflowing with creative ideas. The imaginative, highly original and sometimes shocking imagery is rivetingly good. There are psychedelic graphics, animations, dreamlike fantasies, and collages of advertising slogans and magazine clippings all used to great effect.
Billed as a comedy, there is little humour, and what there is is very dark indeed. Whilst this film excels in raw creativity and inventiveness, it lacks a story. This probably explains why there are two endings, neither of which, in my opinion, works adequately. But it doesn't really matter, as there is so much on offer visually, that I was completely transfixed.
The name of the yoghurt manufacturer "Madone" is coincidentally similar to another well-known yoghurt "Danone" but also reads in English "Mad One". A tongue in cheek parody of the absurdities of the modern world of advertising which regrettably rings true on many fronts.
A clever, thoroughly modern film, which even a grumpy old man like me could enjoy!
*
This movie was made like a giant advertising with very rhythmic effects and fast moving pictures. At least, it will keep the eye entertained during the whole movie but there's more in it.
It describes in a fun way what everybody knows is a sad world. Drugs, sex parties, late work hours, pretentious people, and meetings with stupid people, this is the way it works in the advertising industry.
It's a very funny criticism of advertising and the way it's made. I feared it would not do justice to Beigbeder's excellent book but in fact it's quite good.
Most of all, Jean Dujardin is very good in his role. He could be one of those mens you see working at Publicis on the champs Elysees !
Some people may not like the movie because there is a lot of sex and drug taking inside the movie. Yet, it's a good social depiction of this world. Don't go with the children's (the rating is not very explicit about the real content of the film) and enjoy yourself.
*
Author: medjai27 from France
25 September 2007
This movie is in a way better than the book. That does not mean much because it is obviously a subjective remark, but there is a plot you can enjoy, and enough creativity in the montage and the way the film is made to obtain an original "product". Visually it is new, and good. It is all very artistic and graphic, without hindering the scenario. You get to see the beauty of superficiality and the cold hard reality of depression and drug abuse behind excessive behaviors.
It is a succession of canvases with an elaborate plot. The acting is just great (Jean Dujardin, Vahina Giocante,...), and you follow the characters into their life introspection without doubting a second of how much real they all are. Paradoxically, you will laugh. The few appearances of the author, F. Beigbeder are, you could think, to remain you of the fact that this film was inspired from a book since you tend to forget that fact and enjoy a new story. There are so much novelty in the narration that you enjoy the film with a new eye, as a new story. If you read the book, you'll find some nice reminder and an inch of novelty to adapt the film to 2007.
If you have never heard of the book, you will have a nice display of the secrets of how to sell anything through commercials thanks to the advertising business. You will also get to grasp the meaningless of it all. The film is slightly political, but it does not force your judgment with subliminal messages and ready-made ideas. That way, it's always entertaining. It's sometimes a loud movie, but it's definitely worth the ticket seat. This film is truly original and provides a real cinema experience.
*
Yesterday, I saw this movie in a sneak preview of a German cinema. In Germany this film is called 39,90 like the title of a book from Frédéric Beigbeder that is also an impeachment against the advertising industry. 99 francs is a funny, cruel and "sloping style" satire. It provides an funny and terrifying real insight into the world of advertisement. Coevally, this film is something like a personality profile of a man that is a victim the world he created. A unreal, pseudo-world, in which you can get everything for money.
Nothing in 99 francs is subtle, like advertising isn't subtle. Advertising is mostly one: No, not annoying. It's repetition. The repetition of itself and - in content - of references in movies, literature and art. And so it's logical that this movies refers to all different culture historical things to charge consumerism. So there are allusions to "A Space Odyssey" or "Fight Club". I think you have to see this movie to make up your own mind because it's really hard to describe this visually stunning movie because feels like a roller coaster with lots of loops.
*
Author: Radu_A18 December 2008
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Jan Kounen's adaptation of Frédéric Beigbeder's bestseller has, to put it in wiki lingo, multiple issues. First, it commits the deadly sin of literature adaptations: excessive off-the-screen narration by the main character Octave, an abusive, drug-addicted advertisement creative. There's a lot of plot development which is never on-screen, and the narrator tries to do exactly what he blames the advertisement business for: lead us astray.
That's the second weak point of this film: by following the main character's viewpoint, it invests advertisement with almost god-like power. However, studies in the field (as one's own living experience) do not confirm a definite impact of advertisement on consumer choice. If you are aware of this, and especially if you are a woman, and most especially if you are a homemaker, you may find the constant bickering on the ease of manipulating (female) minds rather off-topic and sexist. To be fair, this irritating aspect is faithful to the novel.
But to conclude with the third and major flaw of the film: the stereotypes don't allow for any social statement. If larger-than-life characters keep dishing it out against society and each other, where is the social comment? And if it's a drama, why not focus on the main events - Octave's falling out with his job and lifestyle, and his incapability to admit his feelings to the only woman he's ever loved? Instead, the viewer is being bombarded with F/X and heavy visual leanings on Spike Jonze, the Coen Brothers and Terry Gilliam, leading more or less nowhere.
The sad thing is: when there's no talk and no abuse, this is actually excellent stuff. A wordless 'alternative ending' really does what the rest of the film was only gibbering about: deliver an accurate summary on how the wish to make one's life less twisted will ultimately remain a (death) wish for the 'civilized' man. More of such imagery, and this would have been a masterpiece.
*
Author: Alex from Austria
11 May 2010
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
As too many people here do not think critically enough and just "consume" the artwork, its no wonder this film remains hidden for many interested and thoughtful viewers who actually take their time and watch this movie, due to its rating result. These people would realize that they have undergone advertisement with an alternative ending. Its what most of consumers want, a happy ending. A win win situation for everyone. They pass away the cruel image of octave, as reckless superficial ad professional, and his tragedy. The clever setting of this movie actually creates needs in the viewers POV. You see how responsive for ads and beauty we become.
*
Author: Serik Yerdybayev from Kazakhstan Almaty
11 April 2012
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
It is some kind of malicious satire about adv. «99 francs» - at such price sold this book before introduction of currency of euro). The story is kept on behalf of the advertiser working in the Manon company (a prototype of the real company "Danon"). The world of adv, fashion and public relations is shown from within - and it isn't so ideal, as it seems to us. And it is not so ideal rather. Not so everything is beautiful, colourful and pleasant – as we, audience, consumers we see in commercials. In total, it is forged, skillfully arranged – only for the sake of profit, for the sake of money and profit, for the sake of that – that we everything as a result BOUGHT it! Also that we do?! We buy! Adv – the trade engine! Create beautiful adv. – and half of affairs it is made! So Beigbeder also describes emergence of the Madam of Advertising.
But, unfortunately, any goods: whether it be sausage, yogurt, shoes, toys which is attractively shown in adv – can break life … ((( In gesture adv everything has the expiration date. Even at the person. Favourite quotes from the book: «People don't know, that want, until to them it won't offer». «The states will be replaced soon by firms. And we will cease to be citizens of this or that country, we will live in trademarks – to Maykrosofty or Makdonaldy – and to be called Kelvinklyaynityanami or Ivsenlorantsami» «Everything passes and everything is on sale. The person - the same goods, as well as all the rest, and at each of us is the expiration date.» «Everything is bought and everything is on sale: love, art, mother Earth, you, I; especially I».
*
Author: jotix100 from New York
22 November 2009
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Octave, the creative talent of the advertising agency Ross & Witchcraft, spends most of the time in a drug induced fog. It is a miracle he can produce all those award winning commercials that everyone adore. If the unsuspecting viewers would only know how they are being manipulated into buying those products, they would be horrified. The makers of all those products seen in all the media, want to make a lot of money by saturating those 'captive' audiences sitting in front of their television sets, or reading a newspaper or magazine.
As we come into the story, Octave is in the process of committing suicide. We watch in horror as he throws himself from the high rise in which he works, landing on a parked car. But this incident can be deceiving, as we get to learn. Octave's agency has been hired by the makers of "Starlight" a new lite yogurt to work on the concept that will generate the campaign for this product. When he comes out with an idea that is not what the dairy maker envisioned, he decides to go for a more palatable solution: he'll make a prostitute the star of the spots! That'll be his revenge!
"99 francs", conceived and directed by Jan Kounen has a lot of great ideas going for it. The style which the director uses will appeal to the younger audiences that are probably targeted because they will see the silliness of the advertising world. At the end of the film we are told a lot of money goes yearly into this industry that create a false sense about things we don't really need, specially how the food industry wants us to eat exactly what will harm us.
The film is worth a look because of Jean Dujardin's work. The actor is perfect in his portrayal of the guru that is paid obscene amounts of money just to anticipate what we, as humans, would buy in the future. Jocelin Quivrin plays his co-creator, Charlie. Vahina Giocante makes an impression with her Sophie. Elsa Tovati plays Tamara, the star of the commercials.
*
Author: aa aa from France
2 February 2011
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This is an excellent black comedy yet very cynical and pessimistic. Every character in the movie is ridiculous: art designers constantly on drugs, product managers with a complete lack of originality, models who would sleep with anyone to get a part. But, behind those characters emerges some truth about the way advertising works and how we are manipulated by it without knowing it. The whole point of the movie is to show how you can sell an industrial basic yoghurt by giving something more, "a brand", selling a dream.
On that point, I would disagree with previous comments on the significance of the ending. It is far from being a nice "World Aid", moral ending. It is in fact the opposite. The jungle episode where everything seems perfect is in fact only...a dream caused by an advertisement. At the end of his life, the ad creator falls himself in the trap of advertising. A fantastic way to end the movie!
