Mesrine: Public Enemy Number 1
September 9, 2009
Excellent, excellent evening out.
Part two of the Mesrine films suffered slightly from not following directly on, for me, from the first. After all, there had been several weeks between watching this film, sadly, and watching the last. In both a nice and a bad way, there was no ‘review’ of the first film at the start of the second – bad for me, as I’ve slightly forgotten the first film (oops, should read my own blog). But the filmmakers clearly don’t patronise their audience to think that a recap might be in order. The narrative supports this – this is a different part of his life, based on what came before, but essentially a different evolution of his character. Mesrine in many ways becomes a much more difficult character to comprehend – even when he himself is speaking emphatically about communist or terrorist links, you never believe that’s the true core of the man. There’s a puffery about him, an inflation, which some other characters on screen seek to puncture. Most convincing is his insistence on correct pronunciation of his name – quite a nice detail which sadly is jetissoned half way through the movie.
Cassel is utterly hypnotic again – whether as the charming, gentleman thief persona, or sudden shifts into dangerous, unleashed feral beast casually but unrestainedly beating the living crap out of someone.
Catch Mesrine while you can – sadly, it’s fading from screens across the Uk already.
