Mesrine: Public Enemy Number One opens with the gangster Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel) lying dead in his car surrounded by a horde of journalists and photographers battling against a cordon of police officers in order to get a final glimpse of his corpse.
In the second installment of Jean-Francois Richet’s biopic of the infamous French bank robber, the focus is solely on the last six years of Mesrine’s life, from his daring escape from court in 1973 to his death in a hail of police bullets in 1979. The opening scene leaves the viewer in no doubt as to the protagonist’s fate but also demonstrates the transformation Mesrine underwent in his final six years. The film chronicles his journey from underworld notoriety as a brash bank robber to national and international fame as ‘Public Enemy Number One’. Simultaneously the viewer witnesses his personal shift, from being simply a crook with a propensity for grandiloquent speeches to being a self-styled Robin Hood figure with a reckless thirst for publicity.
As the film progresses, Mesrine’s hubris grows; in one memorable scene he boasts to an interviewer that ‘one day [the police] will shoot me to death; it will completely make sense…’ whilst posing for photos with his pistol. Mesrine’s tragedy in the film lies in his inability to realize the growing extremity of his situation, and as the film comes to its climax he is shown to be completely oblivious to the police plot to murder him.
Cassel delivers a memorable performance in the title role, and adds a tragicomic dimension to the character. His portrayal of an overweight, slightly simple and occasionally affectionate gangster allows the audience to root for Mesrine even when confronted with his extreme brutality. However, in some ways the film is held together by the cast’s supporting actors who are more interesting than the somewhat formulaic lead.
Mathieu Amalric delivers a hilarious performance as Mesrine’s long-suffering comrade-in-arms Francois Besse, who acts as a foil to his fame-hungry friend, admonishing him for his high-profile behaviour and openly mocking Mesrine’s claim to be ‘a nitro-glycerine expert’.
Indeed, the film is made constantly enjoyable by the understated French humour that almost all the actors except Cassel exude. It is apparent throughout the film that Mesrine never really gets the hilarity of his posturing even when it is clear to all of those around him. In one instance Mesrine kidnaps an octogenarian billionaire and informs his captive that he is acting on behalf of the PLO. His prisoner responds with classic French indignation: ‘But I’m not even Jewish!’. This component to the film rescues the plot which could otherwise lack originality; after all, the tale of a gangster becoming light-headed by his new found fame and beginning to believe his own pseudo-political hype is hardly a new one.
The presence of level-headed companions who can see the insanity of his behaviour better than he, both grounds the film in reality and adds genuine poignancy when the ever blasé Mesrine meets his gruesome end.
Four Stars
