Film Review : Mesrine - Public Enemy No 1

I've previously extolled the many virtues of the film which formed the first part of this series. Everything that was present and correct in the first film is similarly so on the follow-up. Nevertheless, it is still a very different movie.

Picking up from where Killer Instinct left off (and making no allowances for those who haven't seen it) it soons become clear that the break in the story made necessary by having to tell it over two movies marks the apogee of Mesrine's career. This movie follow's Mesrine through his last decade to his inevitable demise (and no spoiler there as his ultimate fate was laid out clearly in the opening scene of the first movie - and the aftermath of which is visited here in the opening scene again).

After spending some years in prison Mesrine springs another headline grabbing escape with a new partner. The difference is that now he is a little too taken with his own self-image and the headlines he generates. This comes across humourously in his frequent corrections to the way his name is pronounced, to his tantrums when other crimes or atrocities keep him from centre stage.

His self-delusion leads him to believe he is fighting for the overthrow of the system, and this leads him to other routes and opportunities to create his mayhem.

Of course, whilst this is going on the police are running short of patience and the seeming inability of France to hold him in any of their jails, leads them to forget the finer points of policing in their efforts to stop him.

I'd like to be able to watch the two films back to back. It's a story that would be worth seeing in total but, equally, the two halves to tell a different tale of this fascinating French criminal.