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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

best movie i've ever seen.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

If you can imagine what an episode of "Mad Men" might've been like if they let Quentin Tarantino direct an episode, that's what you get with "99 Francs," an extremely ambitious and darkly funny assault on modern capitalist consumer culture and our advertising-obsessed age. As a guy who's worked on and off in advertising for years, I almost shut off the film in the first half-hour, because it seemed like a bunch of things I've seen before -- vain, handsome, narcissistic drug and sex obsessed self-hating ad agency Creative Director's career ascends as his personal life falls apart --- Been there, seen that, over and over.But I stuck with it and as the movie goes on, it becomes increasingly ambitious and, finally, profound. The last half hour or so is INTENSE, and I recommend sticking through the credits. The point the film tries to make connects, if maybe a bit too obviously at the end, but it's still pretty powerful. Not surprised this subversive, well-made film didn't get a US theatrical release. Hollywood would never dare make a picture like this.

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.

99 Francs is French filmmaker Jan Kounen's critique of consumer culture, based on the book of the same title by Frédéric Beigbeder. After 1 hour and 40 minutes of slick film-making, replete with ironic references to famous ad campaigns, beautiful people and lots of sex and drugs and rock & roll, the movie ends with a meek call to action stating that with a mere fraction of the money spent on advertising each year, we could put an end to world hunger. This astonishingly lame ending undermines any value the movie might have had.I suppose the altruistic blurb at the end of the movie is the kind of palliative the filmmakers needed to include in order to convince themselves that their movie has a higher moral purpose. The question is, why do they even bother? In reality, it is just a story about a narcissistic, self-loathing fashion victim who sees the error of his ways. The great irony, of course, is that had they spent all their time and money on charitable projects instead of making this movie, they could have contributed much more to ending world hunger.Himself an ex-creative adviser for an ad agency, Beigbeder wrote 99 Francs under the encouragement of another famous French author, Michel Houellebecq. Octavo, the main character, hoovers cocaine in rails forming the numbers 666, pops whatever pills he can get his hands on, screws hookers, drives under the influence, and , in his spare time, works for France's most powerful ad agency as a creative adviser. After a drug-fueled escapade in which several people might have been hurt, he decides to redeem himself. The movie offers two endings - one happy, one sad - and they both have him renouncing his consumerist lifestyle: one treats him as a Christ-like martyr, the other has him living out a Rousseauian back-to-nature fantasy on an island. Grade school stuff, I know, but not so awful as it sounds.In the adept hands of Jan Kounen, the movie is visually-engaging, rhythmic, and yes, entertaining. The problem is the story. Just like the book, the overall feeling is one of disingenuousness. Remember the scene in Fight Club where Tyler Durden goes on about the superficiality of our consumer lifestyle? "You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your f***ing khakis." Somehow, a hot-$hit guy dressed in fashionable clothes isn't the most convincing of anti-consumerism preachers. That's kind of what happens in 99 Francs.Even with the main character's redemption, 99 Francs gives the impression that it is more intent on looking cool than trying to open people's eyes to the evils of consumerism. Basically, Jan Kounen and Frédéric Beigbeder deliver us the cinematic equivalent of putting a "Stop Global Warming" bumper sticker on a gas-guzzling Hummer.

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!