Mesrine: Killer Instinct
2010 ‘L'Instinct de mort’ Directed by Jean-François Richet
Synopsis
The early career (1959-’70) of outlaw Jacques Mesrine (Cassel), covering his military service in Algeria, apprenticeship with a Paris gang-lord (Depardieu), crime-spree partnership with soulmate Jeanne (De France) and escape from a tough Canadian prison.
Cast
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Berken's 30 Countries Challenge film #7-Canada
I must be honest and say that I had never heard of Jacques Mesrine. French gangsters didn't have the same fear inducing reputation as say Reg & Ronnie Kray on this side of the channel,but after watching this that may have to change.
Vincent Cassel is a powerful presence on screen. From his hate filled rioter in "La Haine" to drunken,violent rapist in "Eastern Promises",he is hard to forget. As the charismatic Jacques Mesrine he brings that violent intensity to full effect in a movie that should have made him a household name. This back-story of France's most notorious criminal is quite simply stunning. Obviously a nutter,his demeanour and behaviour have been shaped by both… -
Vincent Cassel stars in the first part of a double bill about the real-life criminal exploits of Jacques Mesrine, the "most infamous criminal in modern French history".
Quite simply, for the most part this film is superb, and I suspect hasn't had the exposure that it deserves simply because it's a French film with a limited distribution. Vincent Cassel provides perhaps a career defining role in a film that spans the first 10-ish years of the criminal exploits. There is a liberal use of split screen throughout, which personally is an effect that I love when used appropriately - there are two very dramatic scenes here where this works wonderfully, the opening scene of Mesrine and his girlfriend exiting an…
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Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
The first part of Jean-François Richet’s two-film adaptation of the eponymous gangster’s memoir, Mesrine: Killer Instinct follows the notorious criminal from his beginnings in the French army during the Algerian War of the 1950s through to his daring daylight escape from one of the most secure prisons in Canada. The film’s key issue is the uneasy line it walk between adulation and condemnation: is Mesrine the hero of the film, or a villain we vicariously observe? Richet seems often to lead toward the former, the summative epilogue at Killer Instinct’s conclusion touting the good Mesrine has achieved. Uneasily aligned perspective aside, however, this is a riveting gangster drama with horrifying flows of blood and plenty of action thrills to offer. In the end though, this is Vincent Cassel’s film; he is electric in the lead role, always watchable if not entirely likeable.
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Together with Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 - this makes up the greatest gangster movies I've seen.
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I'll review both films here because it makes more sense than doing a seperate review for each film, even though there are some elements that do not carry over from the first to the second.
The first installment, Killer Instinct, is an extremely stylish and tense thriller that really surprised me. If this had been released in Hollywood I have the feeling it would have been a much bigger film outside of France, but as it is it seems to be rather under-appreciated and under-seen. Like Die Hard or any other example of a very good action movie it is slick and exciting with enough kinetic energy and sophisticated camerawork to make it interesting to almost any viewer; the only…
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Until his imprisonment somewhat slows down proceedings (call that a spoiler, it's historical fact) this movie rollicks along with an intense momentum that, whilst meaning certain significant events of the man's life are glossed over in sometimes a single line, ensures that it is literally impossible to get bored. Cassel is incendiary as ever.
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Jacques Mesrine is that dude!!!!
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Ugh. That L’instinct de mort is Part One of a two-part film about the real life French career criminal Jacques Mesrine need not have compromised its viability as a stand-alone film, but it feels as if the first two hours of a longer film had been lopped off and released as is with no real point of view or even narrative arc of its own. After a stylishly shot and edited opening sequence showing Mesrine (Vincent Cassel) and an unidentified woman driving into a police ambush on the streets of Paris, the film travels back to 1959 and Algeria where Mesrine is one of a number of French soldiers brutalizing Algerian terror suspects; a superior officer orders Mesrine to shoot…
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Berken's 30 Countries Challenge film #7-Canada
I must be honest and say that I had never heard of Jacques Mesrine. French gangsters didn't have the same fear inducing reputation as say Reg & Ronnie Kray on this side of the channel,but after watching this that may have to change.
Vincent Cassel is a powerful presence on screen. From his hate filled rioter in "La Haine" to drunken,violent rapist in "Eastern Promises",he is hard to forget. As the charismatic Jacques Mesrine he brings that violent intensity to full effect in a movie that should have made him a household name. This back-story of France's most notorious criminal is quite simply stunning. Obviously a nutter,his demeanour and behaviour have been shaped by both… -
Long. French. Violent. Crazy. Sublime.
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I actually saw this and its immediate sequel back to back on the big screen. Both are quality films with nice acting, sweet action scenes, and a compelling lead character who is awesome despite being a bad guy who is great at escaping from the authorities. This first movie has the bonus of Gerard Depardieu and getting to see how this guy achieved success.
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Publiqué el 01/12/2012:
Vamos a checar "L'instinct de mort" (Rochet, 2008), a ver qué tal va...
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2012-12-01 22:01:33 (EST) -
Vincent Cassel is legit! He’s just incredible in MESRINE: PART I: KILLER INSTINCT. Mesrine seems like he was a genuinely terrifying guy, but one who could turn on the charm in an instant (like any real monster can). Cassel zeroes in on that duality and becomes equally likeable and terrifying. I’m surprised there was no awards buzz around him after this came out. He’s that good.
Thankfully, this isn’t one of those movies that only gets by on the power of one performance. The rest of it holds up almost as strongly. It covers the first half of Mesrine’s criminal career, and it does so at a pretty quick pace. But it still manages to highlight his biggest ups and…