99 francs

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.

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.

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.

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 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