Country: France
Genre: Action
Director: Jean-François Richet
Year: 2008
Rating: 
TRASH CINEMA HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Death Instinct takes a kaleidascopic approach to its subject. Jacques Mesrine, the most notorious criminal in France’s history, had a twenty year criminal career. It would be difficult to take the full measure of the man, even over the course of two feature films. Director Jean-François Richet doesn’t really even try.
Instead, what Richet does in Death Instinct is create a kind of mix tape of the highlights of the first half of Mesrine’s criminal career. I didn’t choose the metaphor of a mix tape capriciously. Richet treats the incidents like songs, fading one into the other by means of overlapping sound cues, visual similes, thematic similarities, and so on.
With a lesser director, this might come off as episodic, but instead Death Instinct is a breathlessly paced mosaic of a thriller, with comic overtones. The glue that holds it all together is Mesrine’s complex personality, revealed through a riveting performance by Vincent Cassel.
Richet gives us a hint of how Mesrine became habituated to violence, through his involvement in the Algerian War. When Mesrine returns to France after his tour of duty, he has an opportunity to assimilate into mainstream society, but he has become impatient, addicted to danger and the quick fix. That doesn’t mean he’s dumb, though. He shows a quick wit in sticky situations. Many episodes seem to illustrate paradoxical aspects of Mesrine’s personality. He can be charming, even courtly, but can turn rude as only the French can on a dime. He can be gracious in defeat and then vengeful when slighted. He is above all arrogant, and almost suicidally brave. It’s a tribute to Vincent Cassel’s performance that all of these aspects of Mesrine’s personality never feel like contradictions, but simply the layered complexity of a human being.
But how about the action, you might ask? It’s hard hitting, plentiful, and stylish, without being ostentatious. The camera moves fluidly, without calling attention to itself, but increases the energy palpably. The action scenes are blocked expertly. The violence is only as graphic as it needs to be, which surprised me because members of the press described Death Instinct as being absurdly violent. That is high praise indeed when critics are fooled into thinking a film is more violent than it is by virtue of the filmmakers’ technique.
At times, you almost gasp at some of the audacity of the events. This is stuff that you couldn’t get away with if you made it up.
Most of all, Death Instinct is fun. It’s a blast watching a nutcase like Mesrine heedlessly cut a swath through society without regard for the consequences. I can’t wait to see the sequel, Public Enemy #1.
It tells you something about how fu#*&ed up the American film industry is that Death Instinct and Public Enemy #1 haven’t been released in the United States on DVD, much less in the theaters.
If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!
« The Shootist - Riding Off Into The Sunset | Home | Mr. Woodcock - Wood…Cock, Get It? (snigger, snigger) »