Anyone else catch this two part movie with Vincent Cassels and Mathieu Almaric? It’s based on the true story of a French gangster who robbed banks and broke out of a couple of max security prisons. Part 1 is called Mesrine: Killer Instinct, and Part 2 is called Mesrine: Public Enemy #1.
Anyway, I recommend it if you like the rhythms of French movies and are into gangster flicks; it’s a fun ride.
I’ve been waiting for a US release.
We bought it on Blu-ray last weekend, here in Canuckistan and we usually get releases at the same time. Maybe it was a stealth release for you?
I have it in my Netflix queue and it still shows up under unavailable. Maybe you guys received it earlier (weird french thing)?
Also waiting for Notre Jour Viendra to arrive here. Very eager to see that after seeing Gavras’ music videos.
Saw it in the theater last year in Cambridge. It was beautifully acted and filmed. A masterpiece of the film-maker’s art.
But the story and characters are soulless. This is the very model of prewar French noir translated into this century. It makes a philosophical point about existentialism and the complete loss of morality coming from that one key event in the character’s life, but after that, who really cares what happens to these unlikeable, unsympathetic, and antisocial characters?
Also, the prison break sequence is insanely implausible, but this is a minor point in a movie like this.
Finally got around to watching this. For me, the weirdest thing about it is just how bad at crime Mesrine is. I don’t know how much specific scenes are based on true events, but apart from the evident talent at escaping, if even half the rest of them are accurate he was extraordinarily lucky not to have been killed about 15 years earlier than he was.
Maybe that is actually more accurate than all the films that show us criminal masterminds.
I don’t think he was a mastermind of any sort: he was a manipulatory asshole, and his legacy lives on as fiction is still made about that manipulatory asshole ;)