Public Enemy Number One changes tacts in the 2009 double-bill chronicling notorious French gangster Jacques Mesrine, in that where the first was interested in detailing the rise and rise of the man, with hierarchy dominating the subject matter as well as the creating of his reputation; this edition is focused more on the tale of a gangster situated at the top of his game as well as the top of the state's hate list, hence the title, as an air of inevitability in dramatic decline begins to creep in. Cassel is back as Mesrine and playing him as the man whom ages into this somewhat grotesque, bearded, balding, overweight individual with delusions he's beaten mostly everyone up to this point and thus, is able to do mostly anything he wishes in winning any feud he instigates. The title refers to the name the state tagged onto him as Mesrine evaded capture; incarceration; thieved and terrorised to the point a 'shoot to kill' tactic had to be deployed. Since most of their primary methods were rendered futile due to the man's seeming invulnerability to being held down in a prison, a more blood thirsty tactic was forced into being deployed. As the state appear to step up their tactics and actions, Mesrine comes across as winding down as age and apparent psychological state catch up with him in that ideas of new plateaus such as politics and guerrilla warfare onto which he'll move begin to fill his head.
If Killer Instinct was more to do with building a man up, this film is concerned with knocking him down; the first film allowing us to form our own opinion of him as he engaged in all this immoral activity but director Jean-François Richet refraining from painting an overly hateful image of him. When Mesrine appeared to engage in a violent act for the first time in Killer Instinct, it was against a pimp whom had beaten a woman up, rendering said fight against a sleazy; woman hating; sex industry working individual. Here, Richet drops us into an early instigation of violence as we observe Mesrine in a courthouse facing sentencing; but, and after a brief allusion to The Godfather, is soon shooting up police officers and taking a judge hostage as he escapes in what is a sequence of violence solely designed to turn us away from him as he does what he does; this, rather than paint an imbalanced portrait such as previously. Richet gradually veers us away from this figure of Mesrine, deliberately alienating us from him as the end nears, in savage beatings of hapless helpless journalists; the kidnapping and threatening of rich old men in their 80s for ransoms and a particularly gross montage right nearer the end in which Mesrine and fresh squeeze Sylvie Jeanjacquot (Sagnier) indulge in mass spending with ill-gotten money as wallowing in the purchasing of brand new cars and expensive diamonds gradually force us into turning on them.
Director Richet paces this alienation wonderfully, only very gradually taking this character away from the audience before the inevitable comes to a hilt. If Killer Instinct was all about telling a story about a criminal flying all over the place and whose tales became dangerously entertaining and engaging as we wanted those around him, on several occasions, to fail in their apprehension; Public Enemy Number One is all about rendering Mesrine oafish and as if nothing more than a middle aged thug with a school playground mentality. When we begin, he's still up to his old tricks in robbing a bank before holding up another across the street for the thrill of it; in hiring a boxer he meets to act as the driver for another escapade, whom is apprehended before the plan can play out, and the consequent getaway which very nearly kills Mesrine and his second accomplice whom himself argues and walks away from Mesrine, we get the feeling the wheels are beginning to come off.
Mesrine's chief criminal relationship is with another French criminal named François Besse, played by Mathieu Amalric. Besse is a quiet voice of reason amidst an inaccurate growing sense of invulnerability; the first night they break out of prison sees Mesrine bring over two women for sex and drugs, despite their faces being all over the news; whilst on another occasion, the venturing into a police station in disguise feels like a discerning act too far, and we relate to Besse as his facial expressions; tone and body language begin to mirror our own. Again, a sense of deliberate alienation creeps in on a number of occasions. The relationship hits a hilt when Besse questions Mesrine's mindset and philosophies, and the distinction between a man on a criminal ladder engaging in hierarchical struggle to that of someone veering more and more away from this life is established. Mesrine's admittance to this new existence and new found sense of life pushes him away from what it was he was in the first film, disobeying and betraying the demands of the genre; a rule breaking which costs him. While not as good as the first film detailing Mesrine's exploits, Public Enemy Number One offers an effective change of tact in covering the man's dangerous, brooding, cut and thrust life; culminating in a sequence which carries the lonesome air of inevitability as the packed, bustling Parisian streets act as the setting for the finale. As a matching set of engaging, powerhouse film-making; Richet's Mesrine double bill certainly delivers.
If Killer Instinct was more to do with building a man up, this film is concerned with knocking him down; the first film allowing us to form our own opinion of him as he engaged in all this immoral activity but director Jean-François Richet refraining from painting an overly hateful image of him. When Mesrine appeared to engage in a violent act for the first time in Killer Instinct, it was against a pimp whom had beaten a woman up, rendering said fight against a sleazy; woman hating; sex industry working individual. Here, Richet drops us into an early instigation of violence as we observe Mesrine in a courthouse facing sentencing; but, and after a brief allusion to The Godfather, is soon shooting up police officers and taking a judge hostage as he escapes in what is a sequence of violence solely designed to turn us away from him as he does what he does; this, rather than paint an imbalanced portrait such as previously. Richet gradually veers us away from this figure of Mesrine, deliberately alienating us from him as the end nears, in savage beatings of hapless helpless journalists; the kidnapping and threatening of rich old men in their 80s for ransoms and a particularly gross montage right nearer the end in which Mesrine and fresh squeeze Sylvie Jeanjacquot (Sagnier) indulge in mass spending with ill-gotten money as wallowing in the purchasing of brand new cars and expensive diamonds gradually force us into turning on them.
Director Richet paces this alienation wonderfully, only very gradually taking this character away from the audience before the inevitable comes to a hilt. If Killer Instinct was all about telling a story about a criminal flying all over the place and whose tales became dangerously entertaining and engaging as we wanted those around him, on several occasions, to fail in their apprehension; Public Enemy Number One is all about rendering Mesrine oafish and as if nothing more than a middle aged thug with a school playground mentality. When we begin, he's still up to his old tricks in robbing a bank before holding up another across the street for the thrill of it; in hiring a boxer he meets to act as the driver for another escapade, whom is apprehended before the plan can play out, and the consequent getaway which very nearly kills Mesrine and his second accomplice whom himself argues and walks away from Mesrine, we get the feeling the wheels are beginning to come off.
Mesrine's chief criminal relationship is with another French criminal named François Besse, played by Mathieu Amalric. Besse is a quiet voice of reason amidst an inaccurate growing sense of invulnerability; the first night they break out of prison sees Mesrine bring over two women for sex and drugs, despite their faces being all over the news; whilst on another occasion, the venturing into a police station in disguise feels like a discerning act too far, and we relate to Besse as his facial expressions; tone and body language begin to mirror our own. Again, a sense of deliberate alienation creeps in on a number of occasions. The relationship hits a hilt when Besse questions Mesrine's mindset and philosophies, and the distinction between a man on a criminal ladder engaging in hierarchical struggle to that of someone veering more and more away from this life is established. Mesrine's admittance to this new existence and new found sense of life pushes him away from what it was he was in the first film, disobeying and betraying the demands of the genre; a rule breaking which costs him. While not as good as the first film detailing Mesrine's exploits, Public Enemy Number One offers an effective change of tact in covering the man's dangerous, brooding, cut and thrust life; culminating in a sequence which carries the lonesome air of inevitability as the packed, bustling Parisian streets act as the setting for the finale. As a matching set of engaging, powerhouse film-making; Richet's Mesrine double bill certainly delivers.