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Iznogoud

Iznogoud

Movie · 2005 · 15 people

Patrick Braoudé directed Iznogoud, a French comedy adapted from the comic series of the same name by René Goscinny and Jean Tabary. It was shot in 2004 and released in 2005, with a French opening reported for 9 February 2005. The 95-minute film had a budget of 22.9 million euros, was shot on 35 mm colour and is in French. The name sounds like "is no good" when said the French way, and the comic once ran in Turkey as Hain Vezir Yallah Fettah.

The story is set in a Baghdad out of the Arabian Nights. At the court of the good-natured but not very clever Caliph Haroun El Poussah, Grand Vizier Iznogoud has a single aim: to become caliph in the caliph's place. Michaël Youn plays Iznogoud and Jacques Villeret the caliph, with Elsa Pataky and Franck Dubosc also in the cast. The vizier's right-hand man, Dilat Larath, keeps producing odd ideas that always end badly. Their plots backfire every time.

The series behind the film was created by Goscinny, who is also known for Asterix and Lucky Luke. Others in the cast include Kad Merad, Élie Semoun, Bernard Farcy and Daniel Russo. Villeret died in January 2005, shortly before the film opened.

DirectorPatrick Braoudé

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Cast

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Robert Castel Robert Castel Actor · died at 87 Rufus Rufus Actor · 83 years old Ariel Wizman Arno Chevrier Benjamin Morgaine Bernard Farcy Daniel Russo Élie Semoun Elsa Pataky Franck Dubosc Jacques Villeret Kad Merad Laurent Baffie Magloire Maurice Lamy

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Through different eyes

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

As a comedy that comes from a comic book, it looks fine for watching with the whole household. The humour is built on schemes that keep backfiring, and that kind of slapstick can make children laugh. Some jokes, though, may rely on French wordplay that loses its punch in translation. For grown-ups who remember the scheming vizier from the comics, it is a sweet bit of memory too. A reasonable pick for families after a light weekend film.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Goscinny and Tabary's comic rests on a single mechanism: the vizier's plan is set up and backfires every time. Stretching that into a feature creates a real structural problem, because the running joke of repeated failure never builds into an arc, it simply piles up. Patrick Braoudé tries to fill the gap with a big-budget look and a crowded cast, and the result is a string of loosely connected sketches. The visual generosity is impressive, but the comic timing is louder and less precise than the dry wit of the source. A well-meaning but scattered film that sidesteps the central challenge of the adaptation rather than solving it.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Iznogoud's Baghdad is not a real city but a fairy-tale land drawn from Europe's popular image of the Arabian Nights. Such an Orientalist frame passed as harmless fantasy when the comic was created; today one could argue that types like the scheming courtier, the simple caliph and the wicked vizier repeat a view that caricatures the East. On the other hand, the story's real target is not a culture but ambition itself: a bureaucrat who tries everything to take the throne and always loses is a figure every society recognises. That the comic was known in Turkey as Hain Vezir Yallah Fettah is a sign of that universality.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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