L'ennemi public n°1 (2008)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Jean-François Richet

Writers:

Abdel Raouf Dafri (scenario)
Abdel Raouf Dafri (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

19 November 2008 (Belgium)

Genre:

Biography | Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

The story of notorious French gangster Jacques Mesrine. The follow-up film to "Public Enemy No. 1."

Plot Keywords:

Mesrine | France | Gangster | 1970s | Bank Robbery

Awards:

6 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Vincent Cassel	...	Jacques Mesrine
Ludivine Sagnier	...	Sylvie Jeanjacquot
Mathieu Amalric	...	François Besse
Gérard Lanvin	...	Charly Bauer
Samuel Le Bihan	...	Michel Ardouin
Olivier Gourmet	...	Le commissaire Broussard
Michel Duchaussoy	...	Le père de Jacques Mesrine
Myriam Boyer	...	La mère de Jacques Mesrine
Anne Consigny	...	L'avocate de Jacques Mesrine
Georges Wilson	...	Henri Lelièvre
Alain Fromager	...	Jacques Dallier - journaliste pour Minute
Alain Doutey	...	Le président du tribunal à Compiègne
Laure Marsac	...	La journaliste interview
Arsène Mosca	...	Jojo - un policier
Christophe Vandevelde	...	Inspecteur Gégé

Also Known As:

Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 (UK) (USA)
Mesrine: Public Enemy Number One (UK) (alternative spelling) (USA) (alternative spelling)
Mesrine - L'ennemi public n° 1 (France) (poster title)
Mesrine: L'ennemi public n° 1 (France) (promotional title)
Mesrine: Part 2 - Public Enemy #1 (International: English title)
Mesrine: Part II - Public Enemy #1 (International: English title)
Public Enemy No. 1, Part 2 (International: English title)

Runtime:

133 min

Country:

France | Canada

Language:

English | French

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | France:U (with warning) | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Ireland:16 | UK:15 | Italy:VM14 | Japan:R15+

Filming Locations:

Algeria

Company:

La Petite Reine

Trivia:

Filmed back-to-back with L'instinct de mort (2008), which stands as the first half of the two-part story.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the scene where a freshly-escaped Mesrine and Besse get on the train, they are shouting at each other and at the passengers, and brandishing pistols, but the extras playing passengers just look bored rather than terrified.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Gangstars (2009) (TV)

exciting gangster epic

Not a generic crime movie, it certainly has also something of every crime story but much more energy and realism, due to both Cassel's performance and a strong direction that gets to cement effectively the whole story. There's a lot of violence but also an effective job of transforming the movie's central character into a rounded and strongly captivating figure. Cassel is more than electrifying and, although the director leapfrogs many years, the work of describing this big character proves to be perfect. Another element of the film is the Martin Scorsese style, defined by professional reviewers as violent escapism. Of course the whole epic is centered on one performance rather than the plot but I think the second part of this story works even better than the first