The following review is for a two parter, French Gangster film Mesrine, starring Vincent Cassel and Gerard Depardu. This first Part covers the first film entitled KILLER INSTINCT....
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The french have always been adapt at making crime films, from the 50s and 60s french new wave films all the way up to the 00s with films like Olivier Marchal's 36. This new film, based on the life of notorious french gangster, Jacques Mesrine, stars Vincent Cassel in a powerhouse performance as the title gangster.
The film starts with Mesrine returning from the Algerian war, before he was a loving son who worked hard, he's changed when he returns. He starts working for mobster Guido (Depardu) and begins breaking into houses and killing people. While on a short trip to spain with his pal he meets a young Spanish woman and falls inlove. They marry and have three children and after a bank job gone wrong, Mesrine ends up in the klink. Up on his return he decides to go straight but after the company he works for starts to struggle, he's let go. This leads him back into the arms of Guido, his wife disapproves which ends with Mesrine putting a gun into his wife's mouth, it's pretty safe to say that the marriage ends here. A few years later He enters a club where he meets femme fatale Jeanne and they rob a casino owned by a rival gangster. Due to this Mesrine has to leave france for a while and goes to Quabec, Canada, where he and Jeanne kidnap a millionaire cripple and end up spending time in jail. Mesrine, along with his canadian pal Jean-paul (Roy Dupuis) break out of the prison and rob two banks, then they decide to break the others out but that turns out to be a washout as many inmates are killed and Mesrine and Jean Paul are both injured. After a phone call to Jeanne, to which he tells her he is coming to get her out of jail, she tells him their relationship is over. So the film ends and tells us some tidbits about what happened to Jeanne and Jean-Paul and a to be contiued title comes across the screen....
The main problem with the first film is the fact that it moves way to fast, one minute he's a low-level gangster, the next minute he's the right hand man of Guido and living in this massive house. It just seems like the film maker has missed an opportunity for some more back story. There's a multitude of characters in this that appear then disappear very quickly, one instance is a prostitute, she seemed at one point to be integral to the plot but she's written out almost imediately. But this isn't too much of a problem because after about 45 minutes the film really gets going.
The set pieces such as the prison shoot out are very well staged, guns fire, cars blow up and so on.
But the film is not about the action it's about the actors and one actor inparticular. Vincent Cassel. He is unbelievable, his performance is mental. He's serious, comical, has a personality and at time is really mean motherfucker. It's well known that Cassel is an outstanding actor because of films like IRREVERSIBLE and Cronenberg's EASTERN PROMISES, but Mesrine is his magnum opus, his Tour de force, he is frankly fan-bloody-tastic.
Also on fine form as the sleazy Guido is the always watchable Gerard Depardu, who as we know is a big man, and he brings a lot of presence to the screen. Roy Dupuis (Screamers) is also pretty good as Mesrine's French-Canadian partner Jean-Paul Mercier, a member of the Free Quabec movement.
The women are also very well cast. Elena Anaya who plays Mesrine's first wife Sofia is absolutely georgeous and they have great chemistry on screen. But she has to put up with all this crime he's comiting while trying to raise his three kids. She's really good in the film. His second girlfriend Jeanne is played by Cecille De France who you may recognise from SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE. She looks an awful lot like Famke Jannsen in this. She's plays Jeanne as Cold and calculating but is able to make you feel for her character.
The Direction by Jean-Francios Richet (Assault on Precinct 13 remake) is very good, he's managed to get the period detail of 1959-1969 spot on from the cars, the clothes and music. He's very good at handling the action scenes as we've seen the Precinct 13 remake.
The music is very good too and have used first time composer Eloi Painchaud with some additional music from Marco Beltrami (Scream/The Faculty).
Overall, apart from the very fast pace and the amount of characters that appear and disappear, the film is an outstanding addition to the gangster genre and can take it's place next to GoodFellas and Scarface.
MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT
FILM: 8/10
here are some more stills from the film...
http://www.cine-apocalypse.com/
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