Mesrine. Dir. Jean Francois-Richet.
This is the two-part story of notorious French gangster Jacques Mesrine.
Review by bookhouse_parks 
Mesrine (meh-reen) was completely enjoyable, and I was happy to immerse myself in Paris (pah-rhee) from a bygone era.
The opening scene shows a young Mesrine played by Vincent Cassel in the army and he’s presented with an order to kill an innocent woman as part of a torture act in order to relinquish some information from the captive. Not willing to partake in the killing of an innocent, he shoots the captive in the chest, the lesser of the two evils… I guess? This scene sets Mesrine’s moral tone throughout the movie, he’s ‘honorable’, despite being l’ennemi public numero une! Vincent plays Mesrine in a suave, charming, lovable rogue style, but during one particular scene really demonstrated Mesrine’s dark side, and his portrayal of evil was amazing, Mesrine was undeniably one bad cat… this particular scene made me wince, and recoil from the TV, the joys of HD.
The emotive display did not peak at the violence, there are several intimate moments with his ladies and children, and some intricate scenes with his father, who loved him unconditionally, unfortunately Mesrine’s love for his father albeit it equal and opposite was tarnished with disgust, as he couldn’t understand how this man he admired so much growing up could have turned out so normal and average, outwardly he despised him, but you could tell the love ran deep. The insight into his relationship with his father was at least 50% of why he turned to crime, having no way out he later quotes "I refused to dream my life away", I think this is directly aimed at his father whom he loved and hated so much. This love is later validated in a scene where Mesrine visits his father’s death bed disguised as a Doctor when the whole of the Parisian Police was after him, displaying his moral outlook, and moral rules, and how he tried to live his life by them.
Filmed with that classic look found in most European cinema, the film did feel very French, yet the cinematography threw in the odd Hollywood setup to keep the pace up during certain scenes, car chases gun fights, etc. I was impressed with this; it was not overused and maintained a good balance throughout.
Cassel was in this film for 99% of the time, so it's hard to say he stole the film, more like mugged it... he was in it so much, and was so captivating that it can't fail for his performance to stand out, it was a great performance, and I hope his enigmatic performance will carry his work into the mainstream, where I’m sure he will be well received, and not just playing the standard French Cop that seems to be the common French role in Hollywood.
The film was made in two parts, and I think it could have been done in one 3 hour film, the second part seemed to be a bit samey, robbing banks, escaping jail, being funny and loved by all, robbing banks, etc, etc. You can see that Cassel underwent a physical transformation into the older Mesrine, which is something the critics love, I appreciate this, but come on… it’s his job, pay me the same money, and I’ll get fat too… ok, I'll get fatter. I'll probably have to work on my French too, although, it's pretty good, "Voulez Vous douchez avec le potage de jour?"
I thoroughly recommend the first part of this film, the second part, I’d imagine you could make do with some research on the web to find out how his life panned out, but if you’re going to watch the first part, you’ll get the second part for free, so why not watch them both!
Review by bookhouse_baker
Mesrine (meh-reen) was completely enjoyable, and I was happy to immerse myself in Paris (pah-rhee) from a bygone era.
The opening scene shows a young Mesrine played by Vincent Cassel in the army and he’s presented with an order to kill an innocent woman as part of a torture act in order to relinquish some information from the captive. Not willing to partake in the killing of an innocent, he shoots the captive in the chest, the lesser of the two evils… I guess? This scene sets Mesrine’s moral tone throughout the movie, he’s ‘honorable’, despite being l’ennemi public numero une! Vincent plays Mesrine in a suave, charming, lovable rogue style, but during one particular scene really demonstrated Mesrine’s dark side, and his portrayal of evil was amazing, Mesrine was undeniably one bad cat… this particular scene made me wince, and recoil from the TV, the joys of HD.
The emotive display did not peak at the violence, there are several intimate moments with his ladies and children, and some intricate scenes with his father, who loved him unconditionally, unfortunately Mesrine’s love for his father albeit it equal and opposite was tarnished with disgust, as he couldn’t understand how this man he admired so much growing up could have turned out so normal and average, outwardly he despised him, but you could tell the love ran deep. The insight into his relationship with his father was at least 50% of why he turned to crime, having no way out he later quotes "I refused to dream my life away", I think this is directly aimed at his father whom he loved and hated so much. This love is later validated in a scene where Mesrine visits his father’s death bed disguised as a Doctor when the whole of the Parisian Police was after him, displaying his moral outlook, and moral rules, and how he tried to live his life by them.
Filmed with that classic look found in most European cinema, the film did feel very French, yet the cinematography threw in the odd Hollywood setup to keep the pace up during certain scenes, car chases gun fights, etc. I was impressed with this; it was not overused and maintained a good balance throughout.
Cassel was in this film for 99% of the time, so it's hard to say he stole the film, more like mugged it... he was in it so much, and was so captivating that it can't fail for his performance to stand out, it was a great performance, and I hope his enigmatic performance will carry his work into the mainstream, where I’m sure he will be well received, and not just playing the standard French Cop that seems to be the common French role in Hollywood.
The film was made in two parts, and I think it could have been done in one 3 hour film, the second part seemed to be a bit samey, robbing banks, escaping jail, being funny and loved by all, robbing banks, etc, etc. You can see that Cassel underwent a physical transformation into the older Mesrine, which is something the critics love, I appreciate this, but come on… it’s his job, pay me the same money, and I’ll get fat too… ok, I'll get fatter. I'll probably have to work on my French too, although, it's pretty good, "Voulez Vous douchez avec le potage de jour?"
I thoroughly recommend the first part of this film, the second part, I’d imagine you could make do with some research on the web to find out how his life panned out, but if you’re going to watch the first part, you’ll get the second part for free, so why not watch them both!
Review by bookhouse_baker
Let's get right down to it, I loved Mesrine!
I am big Vincent Cassel fan, Irreversible & L'appartement are two of my favourite films and he manages to move seamlessly from commercial to more interesting stuff with consumate ease.
That coupled with the fact that it was based on a real person, and that person was Jacques Mesrine who I now know was a notorious, enigmatic and undeniably charismatic French criminal. Who doesn't love Ganster movies for goodness sakes and this was about a REAL gangster! I was surprised (more out of ignorance to be honest) by how commercial this film was, large parts of it reminded me very favourably of Goodfellas. I was expecting it to be a bit more 'French' i.e lots of brooding, sparse dialogue and little action but nevertheless gripping.
The fact that it didn't glamorise crime and showed the life of a criminal in such an honest way really reminded me of Mean Streets. Amongst the bank jobs and press notoriety were plenty of crappy jobs, horrifying periods in Prison and the up's and downs that life throws at most of us. In particular, the examination of his relationships, most notably with his partners, children and parents were brilliantly handled and despite some disagreement amongst the 'Bookhousers' about certain scenes (when Mesrine places a gun in his wife's mouth for instance) being out of character we all felt that these relationships were portrayed in a fantastic way. This is a warts-and-all portrayal of a troubled man who loved and hated with equal intensity and through his unfaltering commitment to what he believed was right unfortunately made some very bad choices. Predictably this meant he suffered for large parts of his life and caused great suffering to those around him but rightly or wrongly I feel sure he would do it all again.
I guess what I took away from this movie was how much our lives can shaped by traumatic events and how War can bring out the worst in people in ways that we still do not fully understand. Also, the parents are always to blame!
This film is littered with stand-out performances from Gerard Depardieu, Giles Dellouche & Cecille de France to name a few and one of the most pleasing aspects of the film was that GD seems to have finally grown in to his nose. Also, if she'll have me I would marry Elena Anaya in a heartbeat!
Joking aside, I think this was a fantastic film that really does have something for everyone and would implore anyone that reads this review to get a copy asap.
Review by bookhouse_dave 
Mesrine was the film chosen for us this time. It is presented in two parts and charts the rise and fall of the French professional criminal Jacques Mesrine. It is based on a real person and real events, which can be a double-edged sword for me sometimes. I dislike bio-pics like Ali mainly because the time, effort and money invested into such a film seems pointless when there is plenty of footage and documentaries about the real thing that grabs me far more forcibly. In this case I knew next to nothing about the source material so figured everything would be fine!
Vincent Cassel plays Mesrine and is quite brilliant. If you follow film at all you’ll probably have heard plenty of talk about his performance already, all I can say is believe the hype in this case. I read someone describe it as career defining, which I only disagree with because I think VC will out-do this performance. The film spans a fair amount of time and the evolution of the character is great to watch. The supporting cast are all great
Due to the film being billed as some kind of gangster flic I was expecting it to be quite different, what you actually get is a portrayal of the smalltime crook far more than anything like the Godfather or even Goodfellas as his time as anything typically “gangster” was quite brief in this film, once I got my head around that I was ok with it though.
There are plenty of really well done scenes, the final scene and the prison-break is as tense as anything I’ve seen all year (or last year!) and the attention to detail with regard to period minutia is pretty impressive. It’s often an overlooked achievement, making a main road in a film look like it’s from the 70’s for example, there’s a school of though that just because we can remember when those kind of cars were on the road or people wore those kind of clothes that somehow it’s less impressive than recreating a street from the 20’s! There’s a scene with his daughter in the 2nd part of the film where they talk through some prison glass and it’s a cracker, very subtle but sums up the spirit of the film for me. There was more humour than I was expecting too, the visit to America in particular gave me quite a chuckle.
I enjoyed Mesrine and liked the meatiness that the two film format provided, it may well be the case that the story could’ve been compressed into one 3 hour film but what was offered was all of a suitably high (and typically French!) quality that the length meant more of a good thing for me. There were flaws to the film but makers of films of this scale should be commended for not underestimating their audiences.
Review by bookhouse_dude 
Mesrine was my choice. I picked it for Vincent Cassell. I've seen him in enough French films to understand and appreciate his pedigree as one of Europe's best actors. (I also remember him in that horrendous Russian bride thing with Nicole Kidman. What was that called? Oh yeah, Birthday Girl. Horrible. Just horrible.)
I heard this was one of those tour de force performances though so figured it had to be seen.
It's epic.
The film is epic, the performance is epic, the story is epic.
The film is split into two parts but I'm not sure how necessary that was. The first half is phenomenal. It charts the life of Jacques Mesrine from his military beginnings and his early career as a small-time gangster.
I loved the seediness of this first part. He's not a major criminal, there's nothing as grandiose as a Godfather wedding. It reminded me of Mean Streets. These guys were low-level criminals, robbing people's houses for fur and jewellery. It's the dirty side of criminality but it was slightly more polished that Mean Streets. You feel the grime in that film but Mesrine was a little cleaner in style if not in content. It was almost slick and, dare I say it, French.
That's not a bad thing.
For me French cinema is the best. I love it. I'm a sucker for the 'Frenchness' of it all. They know how to make films. I've never heard of a French blockbuster. . . . .
Cassell handles his character of Mesrine with such sensitivity in the the first part. You empathise with him at the start and understand why he turns to crime. You like him even though he does some heinous things. Cassell oozes the charisma needed for the audience to connect to Mesrine, his screen presence is immense. He fills that screen and is present for almost every frame.
I did love this film in its entirety. The Cassell performance makes it, of course, but I'm undecided whether it is the tour de force performance so many critics have labelled it with.
Yes, it is very involved. He ages throughout, his body changing shape, his face altering expression but it's not that great.
For an American actor, this would be the performance of a lifetime. I think with so many American actors there is a certain sense of lacking vulnerability. Like they always have to be the tough guy. (Of course there are actors that defy this theory, Gene Hackman, Ed Norton, to name a couple.) For a European actor, this is easier. Vulnerability in abundance. I mean, how ugly can Will Smith look? Even if he's fat. Would Harrison Ford appear on screen naked, hosed down with a cold hold, looking pathetic, or would he puff out his chest and sing the national anthem?
So, yes, Cassell is amazing. It is an immense performance for an actor, just not for him. It's not a better performance that Roman Duris in The Beat That My Heart Skipped, which has to be the best performance I've seen by any actor in decades. But I think that Cassell has this in him.
All of this aside. It's a biopic that doesn't feel like a biopic. You don't feel like Cassell is just doing an impression of someone all the way through. There is some editing to do in the second part and you could have stitched them together into one neat 3 hour film but I liked the epic-ness of it. I don't mind sitting through some bank robbery and Heat-style street shoot-outs while I'm waiting for more dialogue-led scenes. (I did find the sequence with the reporter in the second part quite graphic and jarring but it should be shown if it's true.)
The female characters are superb. I would like to have seen more of Ludivine Sagnier but each of his three love interests managed to strengthen Mesrine as a character and enhance Cassell's performance.
I haven't seen a better French film than this for a while and I could watch it again, both parts back-to-back, right now. It's polished French grit, subtly stylised with faultless performances from everyone including the almost unrecognisable Gerard Depardieu.
In short. Watch it. For the substance, for the style, for Cassell. It's not what you'd probably expect from something billed as a 'gangster' movie, and that's reason enough.
Almost a classic.
Rating:
