Our reviewers select and review the best independent and foreign films on amazon.com, cd universe, and netflix

OSS 117: Lost in Rio (France 2009,  97 min. dir: Michel Hazanavicius, cast: Jean Dujardin, Louise Monot).

James Bond with vertigo teams with an Israeli Mossad operative in a miniskirt to find Nazis in Brazil. He can recognize Jews by their noses and believes his mission is to bring better understanding between Nazis and Jews.

This is the second James Bond spoof that Michel Hazanavicius has directed. The first was OSS 117: Cario, Nest of Spies. The plot of that propels OSS 117:Lost in Rio is an attempt to find a microfilmed list of French who collaborated with the Nazis. But all the really matters is a chance to riff on old James Bond movies, including the split screen images still remembered in old title sequences.

But OSS 117 was actually a French James Bond before James Bond. Author Jean Bruce first invented him in 1949, four years before Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel. The first movie using Bruce’s OSS 117 character was made in 1957 (OSS 117 N’est Pas Mort). The first James Bond movie was made in 1962 (Dr. No).

Michel Hazanavicius has gone on to make the much-praised The Artist (also staring Jean Dujardin). At first it seems odd that a television comedy, and commercial director should suddenly show up with a film about silent film stars shot in black and white and without dialogue. But if you look more closely at his filmography you discover his first movie, La Classe Americaine, was a compilation of old clips from Warner Brothers dubbed into French.

From a film made up of classic clips to two stylistic parodies of Bond movies to The Artist is a very logical evolution. In all these films the director has managed to recreate the clunky styles of the past without every making them silly.

Me and Orson Welles (UK 2008, 114 min. dir: Richard Linklater, cast: Christian McKay, Claire Dames, Zac Efron).

Towards the end of his life Orson Welles would agree to appear in any film, TV show, or commercial that would pay him $2000 a day. His bulk required a wheel chair and an oxygen tank at the ready to help him breath. He died owing thousands on his house account at Ma Maison: the one restaurant that let him run a tab.

The Orson Welles of this film is young, vital, creative, egoistic, charismatic and thoroughly mesmerizing. Christian McKay played Orson in a one-man show long before signing to play this part. His familiarity and ease with the role make the movie.

The plot isn’t much. Orson’s Mercury Theatre troupe is about to perform Julius Caesar on Broadway. Orson hires a young aspiring actor (Zac Efron) to play a small part. Zac falls in love with Claire Danes (Sonja) without realizing Orson is also bedding her.

What makes Me and Orson Welles rise above the plot is its examination of the theater, of the belief that great things came happen there, and that actors are really escape artists fleeing from themselves. “If for 90minutes I get this great reprieve from being myself—that is what you see in every great actor’s eyes.�

Too bad a movie about the soul of Broadway had to be shot in London. This is a British production trying to overcome the lack of money by faking just about everything from Central Park to 45^th Street. Maybe it was deemed too risky for Hollywood.

The risk also led to an advertising campaign featuring the young romance angle (Zac and Claire) and completely ignoring the power of the film vested in Christian McKay as Orson. His wonderful examination of an actor’s soul—or lack of it is what’s worth watching. Me and Orson Welles also has a lot to say about an amazing period in American theater (during the Great Depression) and the crazy genius who went from staging Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as a Nazi parable to vowing “We will sell no wine before its time� in TV commercials.

My Name is Kahn (India 2010, 165 min, dir: Karan Johar, cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol).

The plight of a Muslim man from India traveling across the US trying to convince post 9/11 America that he is not a terrorist is enough, but burdened with Asperger Syndrome it makes Shah Rukh Khan’s (Rizvan) performance all the more amazing.

This hybrid film is actually a Bollywood production but set in San Francisco and dealing with American problems faced by Indian immigrants. Before Rizvan Kahn’s problems even begin with being suspected as a terrorist, he has to overcome the prejudices of his own people against Muslims. He falls in love with beautiful Mandira (played by Kajol) but she is Hindi and shunned for marrying him.

The bombing of the Word Trade Center shocks their world and makes him a marked man because he is a Muslim and because he can not properly explain himself on account of the Asperger Syndrome effects. He embarks on a journey across the US to see the president and explain that he is not a terrorist. Along the way he touches many people and, somewhat like an Indian Jesus, brings a message of love and tolerance wherever he goes.

It goes well, it goes badly. It actually goes on a long time at over two and a half hours. But then, Bollywood films are usually measured by the hours of pleasure, not the minutes of seat squirming. Along the way are music, songs, colors and hope. There is a lot to see here and enough to keep your finger away from the fast forward button.