Mesrine, Part 1

Luckily for me LoveFilm sent me Paul Searl’s DVD’s this week by accident – a very arty (slightly pretentious) selection of foreign films including The Baaden Meinhof Complex and Mesrine. The former looked far too high brow and political for me so I opted for the latter, and what a choice on my part. Mesrine is a two-part French film about the career of French gangster Jacques Mesrine. The first part, Mesrine: Killer Instinct, which takes its title from the self-aggrandising memoir he wrote in prison in the 1970s, the second, Mesrine: Public Enemy No 1, which is what he was called by the Canadian and the French police (I will get back to you on part 2 as I have big plans to watch it this wkend).

Starting in the late 1950’s, Part 1 tracks 20-something Mesrine’s return from the Algerian War, his disillusionment and dismay at civilian life, and his inevitable descent into the criminal underworld.  Mesrine is something of a Robin Hood cult hero in France - something that is certainly perpetuated in this film.

Not a film to watch with your mum and/or gran - Mesrine Part I is a 100% thrilling from the opening scene and one of the best gangster films I have seen in years. And I LOVE gangster films. Violent, sexy, at times funny and always exciting, I can’t think of anything bad to say about it, other than it ended. Thankfully part 1 and 2 were shot back to back so imminently I will be seeing how Mesrine’s story ends. Stylish, gritty and fast-paced, the success of this film is in no small part due to the superb performance by Vincent Cassel. As Jacques Mesrine – the jail-springing, wife-beating, bank-robbing, kidnapping, Arab-hating, anti-establishment poster boy of post-war France, Cassel makes what could have been just a standard gangster performance, somewhat outstanding. He is a horrible, unlikeable villain but so charismatic you can’t help but love and hate him in equal measure.

I won’t tell you the in’s and out’s of the plot as you really need to watch it. If not for Vincent Cassel’s performance then for the most awesome jail-break scene ever. Anyway – basically cheers Paul Searl – you’re not that pretentious after all!!