I've been semi binge-watching the Netflix French import:
A Very Secret Service.
How to describe this?
Sort of like if James Bond worked at
The Office by way of
Mad Men, but with an unmistakably French take on things. Think
Amelie, but (for me at least) flavored with memories (and characters) straight out of Frederick Forsythe's
Day of the Jackal.
Set in 1960 a young Frenchman is recruited to join the French Secret Service. One whose whose motto ("Wherever Necessity Knows No Law") is a masterpiece of Gallic logic and sensibilities.
Oh, and by the way, this is a comedy.
A couple of notes: The dialog is virtually all in French, subtitled of course. But even there, the difference between what is said ("
Au service de la France" - "In the service of France") and what the English subtitles put up "A Very Secret Service") is revealing and, like most things French, a bit complicated. You don't need to speak or understand French fluently to enjoy this, but doing so adds, shall we say, a
soupçon of extra enjoyment to the experience.
At one point the Service is visited by two (American) CIA officers, who are concerned about the upcoming US Presidential election, and the "problem" of John Kennedy's affections for women. The French are totally unable to understand why this might be "a problem." One of the CIA officers jumps in to explain that Kennedy likes women "beaucoup" - but pronouncing it "Boo Coo" in a way that subtly, and hilariously, plays up the fundamental failure to communicate that was to underlie Franco-American relations for most of the past hundred years or more.
Probably not for everyone. But its one of my secret, but certainly not
guilty, pleasures.
