99 Francs (film)

Plot

The film is a satire on the modern advertisement business. The plot mainly concerns the story of a commercial advertisement designer, Octave Parango (Jean Dujardin), who has an easy-going, highly paid job, and an active free life mainly consisting of drugs and random one-time sexual relationships. However, he starts growing weary of his job, and after having his first ever long-time relationship with fellow worker Sophie (Vahina Giocante) fail miserably, he organises a revolt against the advertisement business and his own life. 99 Francs (the title symbolises the worth of a paperback) is two separate stories: a dark, hallucinatory descent into a hell of drugs and self-indulgence, and a rather chirpy alternative ending to which the audience is invited as "a panel for an experiment". In the first, Octave plunges to his death after killing people with a car under the influence of drugs, killing the office hamster and causing the suicide of his best friend and his lover. In the second, Octave gives the world of advertising and capitalism the middle finger and escapes to a tropical paradise where he is joined by his lover and their child in "the best of worlds". Whatever, the film closes with an announcement that 10% of the increasing millions invested in advertising every year would be sufficient to end famine.

Cast