Full disclosure: I have been a fan of Call My Agent! since 2015, when I saw the first two episodes at a small festival in Brides-les-Bains, a spa town in the French Alps. The event was organised by agent-turned-producer Dominique Besnehard, who was showing the episodes ahead of their first airing on French TV.
Having spent eight years getting the project off the ground, Besnehard was anxious to know whether French audiences would like it. They did. The series ran for four seasons, was picked up by Netflix and critically well-received. It won several French TV awards and an International Emmy, with its formula later reproduced in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain, among others. Now comes the movie.
In the series, written by talented showrunner Fanny Herrero who also wrote the film, we observe the workings of Parisian casting agency ASK (modelled on Artmedia, where Besnehard worked) in light comedy mode. Agents match “the talent” with film projects, while coping with actorly egos, affairs, meltdowns and tantrums. The series’ key concept was to mix the fictional agency staff with real-life celebrities making fun of themselves.
Many major stars were reluctant to join the first series. There was no Catherine Deneuve or Gérard Depardieu, possibly for the best in the latter’s case (in the new film, his name is met with stony silence). Fans had to wait for seasons two and three to see A-listers like Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert and Jean Dujardin and season four for Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jean Reno and American actress Sigourney Weaver (playing a diva version of herself). In turn, the success of the series brought fame to its actors, especially Camille Cottin (Andréa) and Laure Calamy (Noémie).
The beloved French series Call My Agent! made stars its secret weapon. But its move from television to the big screen struggles to recapture the magic
There is evidence that great series do not automatically produce brilliant movies — see The Avengers (1998), Miami Vice (2006) and Sex and the City (2008). So could Call My Agent! pull off a movie version?
The one-star problem
Season Four of the series ended on the break-up of ASK. Five years on, the film picks up with Andréa about to direct her first full-length feature film and Noémie producing a TV series. Both work in the same company as their former boss, Mathias (Thibault de Montalembert), who is also Noémie’s partner. Predictably, things go awry.
Andréa’s star, Laurent Lafitte, drops out and she sacks her producer. After Noémie (who steps in as producer) wrecks the possibility of casting George Clooney by making a series of cringeworthy remarks that incense the Hollywood star, they recruit Vincent Macaigne, who plays a reputed but fragile version of himself.
Things go from bad to worse when they all move to the south of France for the shoot, with lead actors punching each other, an unruly wild boar and a storm that destroys the equipment.
For fans of the series, there is fun to be had in the familiar banter among the team of former agents reunited for Andréa’s shoot. Each plays up to their established identity: Mathias continues to be a cad; Andréa bullies everyone while fighting with her lesbian ex-partner over their daughter; Noémie’s chaotic energy hides her professional skills; straight Gabriel (Grégory Montel) and gay Hervé (Nicolas Maury) channel their vulnerable masculinity; and veteran Arlette (Liliane Rovère) reveals more of her improbably eventful past.
The problem, not just for Andréa’s film but also the second half of Call My Agent! The Movie, is the featured “star”.
The reason for the series’ success, beyond gossipy shenanigans at a casting agency, is its deep roots in French cinema history. Sustaining 24 episodes is a rich film culture, with stars ranging from internet celebrities (Norman) to international figures (Binoche), auteur cinema divas (Isabelle Adjani), TV stars (Muriel Robin), comics (Franck Dubosc), the old (Guy Marchand) and the young (Julien Doré).
Boiling this down to one star in one film was a challenge to which Macaigne is not the solution. The film, which showcases Macaigne’s trademark depressive persona, never gives him an opportunity to display his craft — he is upstaged by both the wild boar and the storm.
Meanwhile, the input of his co-lead, former model Laetitia Casta, amounts to being punched on the nose. The “joke” that the policemen who arrest the couple at a demonstration do not recognise them may be a little close to the bone.
To attain major stardom in France, actors must straddle the rarefied world of auteur cinema and popular genres — as is the case, indeed, for Lafitte, who would have been an ideal star but unfortunately drops out of Andréa’s film. (In real life, Lafitte is an alumnus of the prestigious Comédie-Française theatre who stars in both art movies and popular comedies.)
As a result, despite glamorous cameos by Clooney and Eva Longoria, the film is unlikely to attract new viewers. Fans of Call My Agent! will continue to long for another season but, in the meantime, they will have to be content with this watchable, but ultimately disappointing film.
The writer is Emeritus Professor of Film in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at King’s College London in the UK
Republished from The Conversation
Published in Dawn, ICON, September 27th, 2026
