Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008)
"L'ennemi public n°1" (original title)

The story of notorious French gangster Jacques Mesrine.

Director:

Jean-François Richet

Writers:

Abdel Raouf Dafri (scenario), Abdel Raouf Dafri (adaptation),

Stars:

Vincent Cassel, Ludivine Sagnier, Mathieu Amalric

7 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vincent Cassel	...	Jacques Mesrine
Ludivine Sagnier	...	Sylvia Jeanjacquot
Mathieu Amalric	...	François Besse
Samuel Le Bihan	...	Michel Ardouin
Gérard Lanvin	...	Charlie Bauer
Olivier Gourmet	...	Le commissaire Broussard
Georges Wilson	...	Henri Lelièvre
Michel Duchaussoy	...	Le père de Jacques Mesrine
Anne Consigny	...	L'avocate de Jacques Mesrine
Laure Marsac	...	La journaliste interview
Alain Fromager	...	Jacques Dallier - journaliste pour Minute
Alain Doutey	...	Le président du tribunal à Compiègne
Arsène Mosca	...	Jojo - un policier
Christophe Vandevelde	...	Inspecteur Gégé
Luc Thuillier	...	Le commissaire OCRB / Lucien Aimé-Blanc

Storyline

The story of Jacques Mesrine, France's public enemy No. 1 during the 1970s. After nearly two decades of legendary criminal feats -- from multiple bank robberies and to prison breaks -- Mesrine was gunned down by the French police in Paris.

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Plot Keywords:

mesrine | bank robbery | gangster | 1970s | prison | 

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Genres:

Action | Biography | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for bloody brutal violence, a scene of sexuality, nudity and pervasive language

Details

Official Sites:

Music Box Films Site [us] Pathé Distribution [fr]

Country:

France Canada

Language:

English French

Release Date:

19 November 2008 (France)

Also Known As:

Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1

Filming Locations:

Algeria

Box Office

Budget:

€21,166,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$100,242 (USA) (3 September 2010)

Gross:

$275,125 (USA) (11 February 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

La Petite Reine, M6 Films, Remstar Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

133 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Filmed back-to-back with Mesrine: Killer Instinct, which stands as the first half of the two-part story.

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Goofs

In the last scene in porte de Clignancourt, one may see behind commissaire Broussard a 'Kentucky Fried Chicken'. Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants did not exist in France in 1979.

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Quotes

La journaliste interview: [Begins interview] Why are you doing this?
Jacques Mesrine: [long pause] Because I don't like laws.
Jacques Mesrine: I don't like the laws and I don't want to be a slave of the alarm clock my whole life.
Jacques Mesrine: I don't want to spend my entire life dreaming. I don't want to always think how I have to work half a year just so I could buy some thing.
La journaliste interview: What do you expect from your life? Recognition? Money?
Jacques Mesrine: [chuckles] What a question! Money, money, money... all of you just keep talking about it, always the same. But I'm completely different.
Jacques Mesrine: ...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in Maltin on Movies: The Town (2010)

User Reviews

Lands successfully between crime thriller, gangster saga and character study

*REVIEW OF BOTH PARTS*

There is a short paragraph that opens both "Mesrine" films; the exact wording escapes me, but it says something like "no film can accurately portray the complexities of a human life". This seems to be a pre-emptive defense, as if Richet anticipates criticism for a lack of depth or some glaring omissions. After all, Jacques Mesrine is apparently still a famous name in France, and his public persona lives on. If even half his supposed exploits were true, the story would still be crying out for a definitive dramatisation. As such, Richet has wisely avoided making any real ethical judgements of Mesrine's character, focusing instead on the sex, violence and publicity that he thrived upon. But it's Vincent Cassel's committed and exuberant performance that develops this meat-and-potatoes content into an unbiased character study of excess and, over all, a very fine pair of movies.

"Mesrine" may not seem to be particularly even-handed at first because of the glamour, the wisecracks, and the endless charisma, all of which are drawn from the rich stylistic tradition of the Gangster Movie, and used very skilfully in its favour. The fast pace of the story ensures we are either seduced or repulsed by the central character, and rarely anywhere in between. Sympathy or pity is irrelevant, and he is too brutal and trigger-happy to be rooted for as a regular protagonist. The first film is the slicker of the two, and the more visually satisfying due to the wonderfully stylish recreation of early 60s Paris (and elsewhere). Cassel plays Mesrine with youthful vigour here. He's all style and brash confidence, as endearing a wiseguy as any of Scorcese's characters. It's "Goodfellas", in fact, that "Killer Instinct" is most reminiscent of, with its sharp-suited mobsters (including a brilliantly grizzled Gerard Depardieu) and episodic year-hopping narrative.

By the half-way point, Mesrine is still something of an enigma. It's only in "Public Enemy No. 1" that the pace slows down and we can see, through a few intimate and contemplative scenes, what he has sacrificed to live as a superlative criminal. "I wasn't much of a son, I'm not much of a father either." he says, while in disguise visiting his own ailing father in hospital. He gradually alienates his closest friends and accomplices by trying to maintain the outlandish public profile he cultivated, rambling pseudo-revolutionary politics to journalists and threatening to kill judges and destroy all maximum security prisons. The "Goodfellas" ensemble of the first part becomes the isolated, ego-driven "Scarface" of the second as Cassel skilfully matures his character into a man resigned to the fate he knows must be coming.

The over all impression left by "Mesrine" is that it manages to land successfully between crime thriller, gangster saga and character study. This is achieved by the virtue of a standout central performance, as well as Richet's shrewd application of an American film-making style to a very French story. It ought to go down among the top crime dramas of the decade, or at the very least raise the (already decent) international profile of its impressive leading man.