MESRINE: PUBLIC ENEMY NO 1
aka L'ENNEMI PUBLIC NO 1

Year: 2008
UK: Momentum Pictures
Cast: Vincent Cassel, Ludivine Sagnier, Mathieu Amalric, Gerard Lanvin, Samuel Le Bihan, Olivier Gourmet, Michel Duchaussoy, Myriam Boyer, Anne Consigny, Georges Wilson, Alain Fromager, Alain Doutey, Laure Marsac, Arsene Mosca, Christophe Vandevelde, Luc Thuillier, Pascal Elso, Serge Biavan, Isabelle Vitari, Michaël Vander-Meiren, David Seigneur, Nicolas Abraham, Joseph Malerba
Director: Jean-Francois Richet
Countries: France / Canada
Language: French (English subtitles)
UK: 133 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong violence, language and sex
UK Release Date: 28 August 2009 (Limited Release)

Synopsis

Vincent Cassel plays Jacques Mesrine, the number 1 public enemy in France during the 1970s. During his reign, which spanned nearly twenty years, his criminal activities included many daring bank heists became legendary. Add to this his successful escapes from prison, and he was consequently the arch enemy of the authorities.

The incredible and brutal story of Jacques Mesrine continues in MESRINE: PUBLIC ENEMY NO 1. Now back in France, Mesrine is finally in police custody and facing justice for his crimes but he is soon on the run once again. After escaping a courtroom and kidnapping the judge at gunpoint, Mesrine is declared Public Enemy Number One and finds an adversary in his chief and most dogged pursuer, Commander Broussard.

Broussard soon corners Mesrine who is condemned to a maximum security prison where he writes his first memoirs, establishing himself as a household name and anti-hero across France. With fellow inmate Francois Besse (Mathieu Amalric) he stages another daring escape and disappears into the lawless underworld, taunting the police and reinventing himself as a celebrity criminal through his savvy manipulation of the media.

After such a monumental rise, comes the inevitable fall as Broussard closes in. Eventually the police catch up with him bringing the life of Jacques Mesrine to a full bloody circle when he is shot dead in Paris.

Starring Vincent Cassel, Ludivine Sagnier, the film was directed by Jean-Francois Richet (MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13).