MESRINE - NOW THAT'S A GANGSTER MOVIE...

MESRINE: PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE is about to hit cinemas in the UK, so it seems about the right time to extol the virtues of this unsung gangster classic - along with the first half of its cinematic whole, MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT. Together they tell the story of legendary French gangster Jacques Mesrine, a ruthless crook and man of violence whose return from war in Algeria saw him shun a normal life in favour of the criminal underworld. Obsessed with his own image, and with the power and celebrity that being an uber-crook brought him, Mesrine led a life of violence, debauchery and, later, self-doubt. These films capture every aspect of this fascinating life with the rapid pace, kick-ass action and visual flair that recent genre companions like PUBLIC ENEMIES lacked. And if you thought Johnny Depp put in a good performance as Dillenger, wait until you see Vincent Cassel blast out of the screen as he packs Jacques Mesrine with the kind of energy more at home in an atomic blast. The first of the two films (KILLER INSTINCT) is, unsurprisingly, not about a 90s SNES game, but actually about Mesrine's induction into and rise within a large French gang led by mobster Guido (a frightening Gérard Depardieu). Opening with his death in a hail of bullets, we are then sent hurtling back to the beginning to start our journey through the gritty French underworld. The breakneck speed of this movie is slowed only by the fragmented way in which Mesrine's life unfolds. We jump between gunfights, girls and audacious prison breaks with alarming regularity, for the first half an hour or so I was occasionally left wondering where the film was going, but once I settled into it and let the outstanding visuals wash over me I was totally sucked in. Looking back now, there's not a film I can think of this year which had more exciting, entertaining and nail-biting moments. The second of the films (PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE) opens with the same scene of Mesrine being gunned down, but takes a different angle. We see the police analysing the crime scene, the crowd of reporters clamouring for their scoop, and a sorry, engorged gangster corpse removed from the media circus. And so the scene is set for a more ponderous affair, a careful constructed and marvelously executed combination of cat-and-mouse between Mesrine and Commissioner Broussard and Mesrine's own internal struggle with his newfound fame and power. The womanising and the gunfights are not lost (thankfully) but their context is different, less fragmented, and more tense. The meat of this second movie comes with Mesrine's newfound obsession with revolution and destroying the system, an obsession that director Jean-Francois Richet firmly routes in the constant battle Mesrine has waged against authority throughout his life. This newfound mission leads to bust-ups with his criminal collaborators (notably with François Besse, played by an ever-impressive Mathieu Almaric) and, even better, a dalliance with genuine Revolutionary Charley Bauer. It's excellent stuff, jam-packed with ideas and analyses but never losing the violent core that made the first film jump out so much. The analytical side of the film reaches its nadir when it shows Mesrine talking about his book (on which the films are loosely based) and admitting that a lot of it is fabricated to please the public. Genius. Together, these two films represent a thinking-man's gangster movie. They contain the self-reflection and real-life grit that Mann gunned for in PUBLIC ENEMY but without the ponderous self-indulgence. But best of all, they don't neglect the glorious gunfights and viscious violence that marks classic mobster movies like GOODFELLAS. It's clever, exciting, and chocked full of great performances. I don't think I can recommend it more highly than that.