Mesrine: Killer Instinct

The sense of frustration felt during the wait for the next episode of a favourite TV show is nothing compared to that felt when the "end of part 1"! caption appears after 2 hours of thoroughly gripping filmmaking. The prospect of a 3 week delay before the second part is not a happy one.
The film itself is actually more a sequence of episodes than a tightly constructed narrative but it never feels disjointed, driving forward with boundless energy and a tremendous performance from Vincent Cassell in the title role. He has one of those distinctive French faces (the individual parts might not be anything special but the overall effect is rather wonderful) which manages to be immensely expressive. He can switch from charming to threatening in the blink of an eye, and as a viewer you never quite know what he's going to do. This is perfect for capturing Mesrine's volatility. Rather than glamourize him, the film constantly reminds the audience of the violence and bordeline-psychopathic behaviour of which mesrine was capable. He also possesses a nasty racist streak and a propensity for violence against women. Possibly the most shocking scene is the one where, out of the blue, Mesrine attacks his wife. Even his criminal cohorts seem uncomfortable. The fact that the audience doesn't totally loathe this man speaks volumes for the performance.
In addition to top-quality acting all-round, there are beautifully-executed action set-pieces. These reach a giddy high towards the end when a tense and daring Canadian prison break is closely followed by an even more daring (not to say insane) attempt by Mesrine and Mercier to free the other inmates as they had promised. It's a breathlessly exciting sequence, with the camera in the midst of the shooting, but it also speaks volumes about Mesrine himself. You don't doubt for a second when he later tells his girlfriend he's going to get *her* out of jail that he means it. She knows this too and acts out of both love and self-preservation to prevent this.
The film had opened with the very end of Mesrine's story - the ambush by police in the streets of Paris - in a split-screen sequence that stays just the right side of tricksy. Logically, you would expect this to lend the remaining running time either an elegiac quality or a sense of foreboding. Oddly enough, in the first part it does neither. Instead we follow the brutal rise of Mesrine as he robs, kills and kidnaps, working for others and for himself. The film doesn't necessarily pass judgement on him, but there are enough incidents and psychological insights for the spectator to draw a few conclusions for him/herself - even though they probably conflict with Mesrine's own opinion of himself. It's going to be a long 3 weeks ...