Mesrine (2008)

Original title

L'Instinct de mort

Directed by

Jean-François Richet

Genre

drama film, crime film, biographical film

Country

France, Italy, Canada

Runtime

1h 53m

Rated

R

Rating

7.3 of 10 from 1,010 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This is a two-part biographical crime film about Jacques Mesrine, a notorious French gangster. It follows his life from his early criminal acts to his rise as a public enemy.

intensefast-pacedgrittybrutaldarkunflinchingcharismaticraw

What happens

Mesrine is a two-part 2008 French biographical crime film on the life of French gangster Jacques Mesrine, directed by Jean-François Richet and written by Abdel Raouf Dafri and Richet. The first part, L'instinct de mort, was based on Mesrine's autobiographical book L'instinct de mort, while the second part, L'ennemi public No 1, detailed Mesrine's criminal career. The film has earned comparisons to the American film Scarface, and Vincent Cassel earned rave reviews for his portrayal of Mesrine. The film is divided into two parts, with various titles: Mesrine: L'instinct de mort (French for "Mesrine: Instinct for Death"); known in English as Public Enemy Number One (Part One), Mesrine: Part 1 - Death Instinct and Mesrine: Killer Instinct Mesrine: L'ennemi public No 1 (French for "Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1"); known in English as Public Enemy Number One (Part Two), Mesrine: Part 2 - Public Enemy #1 and Mesrine: Public Enemy Number One (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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