A crime epic in two parts, the story of Jacques Mesrine makes for a glittering tour de force turn by Vincent Cassel in the title role. His mesmerizing presence in the center of Jean-François Richet’s two films lifts them above the somewhat conventional life-and-death-in-crime genre pictures these are.
These are films that emphasize the charismatic “public enemy No. 1″ and his many bank robberies that end in shootouts and frenetic chases. There’s a taste of the backdrop against which Mesrine was formed — a declining, weakened and corrupt France, a Europe erupting in youth revolt and homegrown terrorism (Red Army Brigades, Baeder Meinhoff Group). But there’s little of the logistics — the “how” his many prison escapes were arranged, the “where” all the money from his scores of bank robberies, from France to Canada, went.
