39,90

I never read the book of Beigbeder and so I was eager to see the movie after hearing many positive views on the book and knowing that the visuals of a Kounen Movie will be great. I didn't expect this movie to be so much of a comedy because the subject is rather tough. Anyway I think "99 francs" works really good on the level of a satire and it captures the deeply rooted cynicism that is implanted in the world of marketing and PR (in my opinion you can't work in this industry without becoming a total cynic) very well. I just loved the honesty in how the meetings and decisions were described as "masturbation" and how the main actors spend most of their time being high on drugs and their ego. Since the subject is so damn messed up I think approaching and ridiculing it with comedic elements made the movie more enjoyable. You will get many good laughs as well as following the comedy some direct punches to the stomach. All served in perfect visuals with loads of great ideas melting the flashbacks and development of main character Jean Dujarding together. The movie starts of practically with its end and then fast-rewinding to the beginning of how Jean ended up in Marketing but Jeans back story is shown in a very superficial way. You don't really know too much of him and rather see him on his job with his over-the-top cynic boss Marc and his slacker colleague Charlie. Like in every movie it takes a woman in the form of trainee Tamara to get the humanity out of Jeans character. They start an affair but when Tamara gets pregnant things get too serious and Jeans cynical world starts to implode leading to more and more harsh pictures breaking up the colorful advertising world.

Until the first ending I think the movie already made its point by presenting a fake world of cynics with their ridiculous everyday life and how they feel like gods. Unfortunately someone had the messed up idea of presenting the movie with an alternate ending, so you get a very long second version... I get the idea of making fun of how things usually turn out in Hollywood movies and in a perfect ad-world but I think 99francs really messes up its whole intention. Guess what, you get an alternative ending in which Jean finds his humanity and moves to a tropical island finding his peace and love. Yes, we know that advertising and Hollywood clichés are superficial but that point was made before and by playing with the rules even when making fun of them the movie gets entangled in what it wants do criticize and to my understanding falls flat on his face, not even stopping from letting you leave the movie with a preachy message printed on the screen.

Its kind of like making the whole movie again and then telling the viewer what to think and in that its more of what it criticizes than it was supposed to be. That is really a shame because the movie is filled with eye openers and visual gimmicks that make it fun to watch (although the last part kind of dragged for me). So still "99francs" is recommended viewing especially for everyone who doesn't work in or near the marketing industry. But I wished the movie left the viewer with a hard and direct punch to the face and thoughts spinning in his head to come to his own conclusion and not some "hahaha"-fun ending with a preachy moral presented like in a "World Aid" spot.

This is definitely not a mainstream movie.

If you are finding yourself ever and ever trying to go deeper in peoples minds and thoughts, this film is made for you.

If you are a creative being, such like a programmer or designer, or simply wants to know what is going on in the world of high creative common this film is made for you.

If you like psych, weired, mess people you will like this film too.

But if you are not feeling addressed now, it could happen that you will feel this movie as a waste of time.

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Have fun

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!

Watching this film will give some critical ideas about consumerism, dirty ideas of ad business, also lifestyle of people working in advertising business in France. The ideas are different from all full of humor American TV series about advertisers (e.g. "I Dream of Jeannie" and others). The ideas are different, though there are many elements of black humor, criticism of machos' vices, The critical idea is the didactic message of the film. The film reminds that people would not die of hunger if more money are spent not for creating ads to increase turnover, also true critical insights about consumerism, the idea that advertising in many cases sell only dreams for some time.

The plot of the film is also full of visual experiments, some elements of animated cartoons, some repeated episodes which get more meaning at the end of the movie. Also the end of the film obviously make the viewer think more deeply about the nature of the change of the human being discarding commercial things.

It is worth to spend time watching this French film full of experiments and critical ideas about consumerism.

The book of Begbeider and the film are truly two different things, which add more ideas about critical insights about consumerism, advertising business.

I pretty much hated the movie right from the start. You just know quite fast when you start watching a film, any film, whether the film rings true or whether it's full of sh*t. 99 francs was the latter.

The film was full of clichés and bad jokes. Probably some of the "funny" stuff was France-centric and don't mean that much to others, but that can't really explain the staggering dumbness I had to witness. I felt like I was treated like a 10 year old who has never seen a film or read a book, or really knows nothing about the realities of the world. Actually it felt like the makers were 15 year old teens who felt like they wanted to set the record straight of what the advertising world reaaalllyyy is like. But the problem is that there was absolutely nothing new here. We've seen this stuff million times before.

Like other reviewers have pointed out here this was apparently a successful book transformed to film. That explains a lot, because usually it's really hard to achieve the atmosphere successfully. And this film tried really just too much. In a way I appreciate the franticness of the film, and of course I do appreciate the obviously high production values, but to me it was all just a waste. The knowledge of those can't erase the disappointing feeling the film gave me, and that's why I only give it 3 stars.