European Films

The two-part 1970s gangster tale based on the life of France's "public enemy number one" Jacques Mesrine is taking shape. Director Jean-François Richet (the recent US remake of Assault on Precint 13) will shoot both films at once and had earlier announced that Vincent Cassel -- the bad boy of French acting and Mr Monica Bellucci -- will play Mesrine. As if one star is not enough, Richet has now added a veritable who's who of French-language cinema to the film's pay roll, including Gérard Depardieu, Clovis Cornillac, Cécile de France, Ludivine Sagnier, Guillaume Canet, Samuel Le Bihan, Samy Naceri and Olivier Gourmet. Jean-Pierre Cassel, Vincent's own father, will play Mesrine's adoptive father in the film. The two films together have a total budget of €45 million.

The two films are L'Instinct de mort (lit. The Death Instinct) and L'Ennemi public n° 1 (lit. Public Enemy Number One); the former is slated for a release in October 2008 while the latter is pencilled in for a spring 2009 release. For logistical reasons, the second part will be filmed first, starting on location in Canada at the end of this month before returning to France to complete the 33 weeks of shooting planned for both films. Mesrine eloped to Canada in 1968, continuing his crime sprees there and in the US before returning to France after a stop-over in Venezuela. Some location work is also planned in Spain and Algeria; Mesrine served in the French military during the Algerian War of Independence and in his early criminal career was based on the Canary Islands.

Mesrine's preferred activity was robbing banks, but he also made money with kidnapping, not only in France but also in Canada. In 1979, in what would become his most high-profile crime, Mesrine kidnapped the French millionaire Henri Lelièvre and asked for a FRF 6 million ransom; he had become Public Enemy Number One. The title of the of the first film is the title of an autobiography of sorts that Mesrine wrote while in jail in 1973 from which he spectacularly escaped, putting the French  judicial system to shame. 

Gérard Depardieu, recently seen as part of the ensemble of the Edith Piaf biopic La môme (La Vie en Rose), will star as Guido, Mesrine's older mentor, while 3 actors of Cassel's own generation will play members of Mesrine's gang: Guillaume Canet (Ne le dis à personne/Tell No One) will star as François Biesse, Clovis Cornillac (Les brigades du Tigre/The Tiger Brigades) will star as Charly Bauer and Samuel Le Bihan (Le pacte des loups/The Brotherhood of the Wolf) will play Michel Ardouin.

The women in the gangster's life, Jeanne Schneider and Sylvie Jeanjacquot, will be played by Belgian actress Cécile de France (recently Depardieu's co-star in Quand j'étais chanteur/The Singer) and her French colleague Ludivine Sagnier (most well-known abroad for Ozon's Swimming Pool and 8 Femmes). Last but not least, Belgian actor Olivier Gourmet, last seen as Father Bonal in the period epic Jacquou le Croquant, will take on the role of the police detective who leads the investigation against Mesrine, which lead to Mesrine's death by police gunfire at the Parisian Porte de Clignancourt. Gourmet earlier played a police detective alongside co-star Clovic Cornillac in Les brigades du Tigre (The Tiger Brigades).

(source: allocine, photo: Vincent Cassel, photo (c): TFM distribution, 2004)

related items:

• review: Les brigades du Tigre (The Tiger Brigades)
• review: La môme (La Vie en Rose)
• review: Quand j'étais chanteur (The Singer)