I have a
bit of a confession to make. I have a bit of a thing about French films. And
not in a good way. I mean don`t get me wrong, I love French cinema. But I spent
my ENTIRE education with the exception of primary school in French
establishment. So the prospect of reading something in French or watching a
French film… Feels like homework. I mean no, once I get into it I do love it
(sometimes). One doesn`t read the entire works of Emile Zola in French merely
out of a sense of duty for God`s sake. But so, yeah, if I hear a film is in
French, something in my brain cringes and goes ``can`t we do this later?`` And Mesrine especially, I mean not only is it a French gangster film
(and Alain Delon really didn`t make enough of those, right?) there are two of
them. The whole story is almost 4 hours long. I am aware I have prejudices and
do tend to make an effort to push past them, that said, I didn`t expect to feel
compelled to suddenly sit down and do a `Mesrine marathon` either. Then again,
maybe I shouldn`t be that surprised. Mesrine was quite a piece of work. One
time France`s public enemy number one, he was as charismatic and funny as he
was ruthless. And love him or hate him (you rarely did anything in between) you
found it hard to take your eyes off him.
Back from
special duties in Algiers in the 1960`s, the young Jacques Mesrine (Vincent
Cassel) is at a bit of a loss. He tries a ``good honest job`` in a shop, but
after the life in Algiers it doesn`t really suit him, neither in pace nor in
economics – if you see what I mean. He starts off by making a few ``bad
friends`` and petty crime. But soon his ``talents`` have him rising through the
ranks, making connections in the then notorious OAS… Mesrine is well on the way
of becoming a truly international name in the world of crime. These two films
tell the story of his career spanning 20 years and 2 continents…
First of
all let us stop for a second and just praise Vincent Cassell for his
magnificent portrayal of Mesrine. Mesrine is a complex character and he is so
violent, so cruel and such a ruthless gangster it must have been hard to put
the effort in to make him likable. Because likable he was. As the film
progresses we get the impression of Mesrine as being a lot more immature than
one might initially think. I mean, definitely more immature than you would
expect a bank robber and kidnapper to be. The films portrays him at virtually
delighting in seeing his face in the papers and bursting with pride at becoming
public enemy ``number one``. And while he can often bulldoze his way out of
most situations – because it would seem if you have a specific brand of courage
bordering on stupidity you can bulldoze your way out of most things in the
crime world – his overconfidence in his own talents is what lets him down. And
his bigheadedness is what loses him countless business partners. It is this
childlike quality that makes him think he can throw a bagful of money across a
river, fail and lose millions of franks. It is also this childlike quality that
enables him to have the audacity and tenacity to escape from maximum security
prisons multiple times. But try as he might to present himself as a charming
thief who only steals from the big banks, Mesrine is not above threatening the
mother of his children at gun point in front of his son who is barely a
toddler. Nor is he above kidnapping and mistreating the elderly and the infirm.
In short Mesrine is, maybe not in body but in mind, a rather bright teenager
brandishing a gun. AWESOME combo and brilliantly depicted – one swings between
thinking him hilarious and promptly feeling guilty about your laughter all
through the film.
The film
itself is a first class example of its genre. If you were ever even remotely
afraid it may prove too ``arty`` or some such, you really do not need to worry.
Car chases, tense stake-outs and bloody
gun battles are a-plenty all through the film. In fact at several points the
tension mounts so much I almost found it hard to watch - oh no, this film does not lack anything in
adrenaline.
Nor indeed
does it lack in testosterone. I mean I do realize this is the thing with the
time depicted and the genre. I`d hazard a guess and say that there weren`t that
many female main players in the ganglands of 1960`s and `70s France. Any women
we see are either prostitutes (and to be fair we see quite a few of those) or
Mesrine`s partners (sometimes also prostitutes) who invariable end up getting
threatened, chased and knocked around by him but staying with him nevertheless.
I mean I don`t blame anyone on this last bit. When he pulled a bank robbery off
he used to lavish himself and his ``flavor of the month`` in extraordinarily
expensive gifts. Common sense dictates you stick with it. But then again I
don`t want to be overly cynical - like he said Mesrine was an incredibly
complex man, maybe there was real love there, we`ll never know I guess. The
point I want to make is that the only women we see are the `molls` in one sense
or another. I mean you know that has
never bothered me. But for some reason I noticed it more than usual. Possibly
because I ended up watching the entire 4 hour saga in one sitting.
In short,
not only is this a shining example of the gangster film in general it is a
fascinating true story of a rather complicated man. Like many films that stick
strictly to their genre, you probably may want to give it a miss if you
absolutely loath gangster movies. But if you don`t, you`re in for a treat.
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