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Film: Man Of Marble
Running time: 160 mins
Director: Andrzej Wajda
Starring: Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Jacek Lomnicki, Michal Tarkowski
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland
Region 1 release.
The political censors blocked the concept for Man Of Marble for fifteen years under the communist regime. The socialist Stalinist era of 1950s Poland only allowed heavily censored, socialist realist films to be made and shown, but this film slipped through the net.
The film itself begins in 1970s Poland, where you meet Agnieszka. She is a final year University student studying film. Agnieszka is set upon filming a controversial documentary about a bricklayer, Mateusz Birkut, who was very famous in the 1950s, and enjoyed a short career as a champion of socialist work. Agnieszka wants to find out why he was chosen by the state to represent the working class, why he was forever immortalised as a marble statue, and how he fell from such a height of popularity to nothing. Agnieszka wants to understand how Birkut disappeared.
The aim, through Agnieszka’s search, is for the film to expose the hidden truth, the people behind Birkut’s rise to fame, and the people who he was close to…
The beauty of the film is seen through the eyes of Agnieszka and her film crew. Time after time after time, they are put down and told that they cannot embark upon a project like this. It is too risky, she is told, and could put the reputation of the film school at risk.
As a viewer, it feels like Wajda is tempting you into joining the film crew and Agnieszka, on their almost Scooby-doo like approach to searching for the Socialist case of the Man Of Marble, although this is primarily due to the awfully cheesy music aimed at the 1970s film goers.
What is visible in this film, which is present in so many of Wajda’s films, is how the plot of the film is intensely reflective of the historical aspects of filmmaking. From the Russian standard of propaganda cinematography, to having to lie and sneak around a fine art museum in Warsaw, simply to finding small remains of the Man Of Marble, the film covers all aspects of the stranglehold of propaganda cinematography during the Communist era, and Poland’s desire to cover up, and to hide all aspects of red history. Birkut was a product of Wadja. The idea of the character was a creation of communism, an invention, cut and edited to taste.
To re-live the socialist underpinnings of the newsreel footage, Wajda incorporates socialist imagery into them. Wajda not only re-creates the 1950s by referring to that period’s propaganda newsreels, but also by alluding to classic socialist realist paintings. Imagery of Stalin, red and white roses to connote the colours of communism, rallies with hundreds of worker attendees all add to the skilfully made fabricated footage, which are represented as recently found footage.
To put politics aside, Wajda fulfils a mammoth task of creating, then building on the depth of characters in the film. Agnieszka, throughout the whole film, sticks to her original plan to stick to the truth. Her biggest characteristic is her authority over men. Her whole film crew are men, she controls them and she makes the decisions. This is in disparity with Birkut, who is owned by the people. A normal working class man, loved by his fellow man, but he hates himself inside.
An incredible stare into the world of communist propaganda, mirrored through Wajda’s insatiable appetite for reflexivity. A thought provoking film classic that will make you think again about Poland’s never-ending fight for freedom. RT
Film: Mahoromatic - Something More Beautiful Volume 1
Release date: 7th June 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 125 mins
Director: Hiroyuki Yamaga
Starring: Ayako Kawasumi
Fujiko Takimoto, Asami Sanada, Ai Shimizu, Atsushi Kisaichi
Genre: Anime
Studio: MVM
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
Something More Beautiful is the title of the second series of action/comedy anime Mahoromatic. Mahoro is a beautiful warrior android, created by Vector to fight an alien invasion, who is now living as a maid to Suguru, the son of her former Commander whom she was forced to kill.
The story of Mahoro continues... The second series follows an inaccurate course over its arc, with plenty of episodes that simply mark time. Mahoro's internal clock is counting down, with only a few hundred days until she deactivates. One day Suguru is followed by Minawa, an android created by Management, a secret society that rule the world. Mahoro takes Minawa in and she poses as Mahoro’s younger sister.
Over the course of the next few episodes, the three bond alongside Slash, Mahoro's support mech in the form of a panther, Ryuuga, an alien that Mahoro formerly fought against and is now head teacher at Suguru's school; and also Shikijou, a teacher at the school who is a compulsive drinker and is forever trying to get into a relationship with Suguru. A lot of time is spent with Mahoro trying to confiscate Suguru's stash of porn, or increase the size of her breasts.
Towards the end of the series, the Management step up their attacks, and with Mahoro's power failing, she is killed while destroying them. Suguru, in love with Mahoro, spends the next few decades hunting down and destroying androids that were affiliated to the Management. Eventually Mahoro is reincarnated, and the two are reunited…
Mahoromatic is an incredibly strange anime that makes no sense whatsoever. Its ideals, ethos and morals are muddled, it kicks around going nowhere for episode after episode; it has an obsession with breasts; and it has no idea as to what it is trying to achieve, with the result that it doesn't achieve anything. To top it off, the animation is so cheap in places that, at times, there is no animation, just dialogue spoken over still images for minutes on end.
To add to this, we have some dubious sexual preferences thrown in for good measure. Of course, this should not be surprising; Japan is the capital of the world for dubious sexual preferences and practices. But even so, having a female teacher, Miss Shikijou, constantly trying to seduce a 14-year old-boy into bed, and treating it as a comedy, is simply off the mark. Equally, the numerous topless nude scenes of Miss Shikijou enjoying baths with her female students where they spend their hours comparing the sizes of their breasts is pure male fantasy, which puts the show on an artistic par with pornography. Once Minawa starts sharing these baths, an android with the body of a prepubescent girl, again comparing breast sizes and the need for large breasts in order to attract men, the show becomes downright disturbing - it's amazing these scenes made it past the BBFC. Mahoro's crusade against Suguru's pornography feels like just an excuse to squeeze in more softcore naked cartoons. Especially since one of Mahoro's primary goals is to increase the size of her own bust while decrying her catchphrase: “Thinking dirty thoughts is wrong.” The simple failure to create a logical lead character means Mahoro just isn't credible in the way that a similarly outrageous character in a similarly outrageous world such as Tank Girl is. The audience is lost at the start.
The whole series feels manipulative in this way. There is no overarching moral, no real message to tell, just an obsession with breasts (even extending to the end credits song), and an incomprehensible and uneven story. The style veers from flat-out slapstick comedy to severely bleak sci-fi in the final few episodes. Even the animation can't maintain a style, veering from high energy fight scenes to completely static scenes where the camera simply pans across a drawing.
The show does have saving graces, and it certainly needs them. The comedy, while being mostly low brow, unfunny and tending to revolve around breasts, does occasionally raise the game, especially with the sardonic Slash - the running visual gag with him and Suguru's extremely small dog being almost worth the price of admission. The final episode, being set twenty years after the events of the series, and taking itself far more seriously, is a much more enjoyable watch than the ridiculous self-indulgence of the early episodes, but these alone do not raise this anime above anything other than low rent.
Die hard anime fans will probably lap Mahoromatic up for the weirdness, but nothing can absolve the uneasiness of watching casual paedophilia played for laughs. PE
Film: My Father Pablo Escobar
Release date: 12th July 2010
Certificate: Exempt
Running time: 90 mins
Director: Nicolas Entel
Starring: Sebastian Marroquin
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Brightspark
Format: DVD
Country: Argentina/Colombia
Nicolas Entel, more used to corporate productions and music videos for the likes of Wyclef Jean and KT Tunstall, as well as his first feature length documentary about a globe-trotting tango orchestra from Buenos Aires (Orquesta Tipica), had his work cut out for to his latest offering, My Father Pablo Escobar. Also known as Sins Of My Father, the young director documents the difficult journey of Sebastian Marroquin who seeks atonement for his father who was at one time the world’s Most Wanted man.
The film covers a three year period, starting in 2007, when Sebastian, having settled in Buenos Aires, is to afraid to return to his homeland, and will go no further than the Colombia/Ecuador border. By 2009, Sebastian returns to Bogota to meet and seek forgiveness from the sons of the politicians Escobar had assassinated in his lust for power.
Most of the documentary is comprised of footage from national news archives, as well as videos from the Escobar family’s private collection, recorded telephone calls and radio broadcasts. The film does not shy away from showing the atrocities for which Escobar is responsible, but Marroquin is also eager to portray his father as a family man and patriot. Regardless of Escobar’s attributes and deficiencies, it is an incredible account…
The grim opening footage where Escobar’s coffin is repeatedly opened and closed, to reveal his motionless, bloated face indicates the scepticism of a crowd who cannot believe he is dead. It is, after all, the corpse of a man who was once in control of 80% of the world’s cocaine, stupendously rich, and able to amend Colombia’s constitution at will. This is contrasted with a man who loved nothing more than to spoil his children, who would use a nature encyclopaedia as a catalogue to create his own zoo of exotic animals. The family’s home videos are truly something to behold; animals, airplanes, jet skis - every extravagance imaginable. However, Sebastian remembers his father had such a strong competitive streak that he would cheat his children at Monopoly.
Ruling the underworld was not enough for Escobar, and when he starting buying his way into politics, the problems started and then ended in civil war. Escobar was charitable; he built homes for 5000 people living in the municipal dump. He then used his popularity to garner support for Rogerigo Lara Bonilla and Luis Carlos Galan, founders of the New Liberal Party. Bonilla and Galan were displeased to be linked with a drug baron, regardless of his ‘Robin Hood’ reputation, and expelled him from the party. This rejection made the men targets for a wrathful Escobar, who instead bought his way into congress. As soon as Bonilla was made Minister of Justice, he ordered a raid of one of Escobar’s processing plants, recovering 13 tons of cocaine with a street value of $1.2 billion. In 1984, Escobar had Bonilla assassinated and escaped to Panama. What follows is the story of a father and son on the run, one from his deeds, the other from the future that was written for him.
One of the strengths of Entel’s film is that he records showing archive material to the sons of Bonilla and Galan, twenty years later the pain and disbelief is still pasted across their faces. The audacity and monomania of Escobar is apparent from the contradictory and manipulative speech he made when he turned himself in to the authorities on his own terms. The same goes for Sebastian’s initial email in February 2008, we see five suited and obviously powerful men around a laptop looking lost, but also moved at his words of peace and reconciliation.
Sebastian himself cuts a desperate figure; he has succeeded in forging a more moral path than his father, and is very different from the distraught teenager who declared revenge on his father’s murderer. He realises, “I’ve lost the right to get angry,” and admits “I cannot understand my own father’s character.”
It is a documentary about men, fathers and sons, and to some extent, machismo. Sebastian is paying for his father’s foolhardy behaviour, and there are very few women present in this documentary, apart from his mother. She seems a rather powerless figure, authority passes from father to son, and it was due to Sebastian’s quick thinking that the family escaped Colombia after his father broke out of prison. One is reminded of the arrogance of Mesrine, Richet’s film cleverly portrays its protagonist as someone who claims to be a political idealist, but is more interested in unfettered access to the finer things in life. Arguably this is the case with Escobar, but Entel does not go so far as to join the dots - he is, after all, dealing with a very loyal subject in Sebastian.
The film does end on a moral note, when Sebastian eventually returned to Colombia he discovered “everyone wants to be Pablo Escobar” - a glamorous lifestyle funded by cocaine is something he seeks to discourage by showing the human price.
The blood and body count of My Father Pablo Escobar sends out a powerful message: it shows the extent of terrorism in a developing country, where drugs dictate the political agenda and appear to the public as the only source of prosperity. This potentially explosive subject material is crafted into a cry for reconciliation and hope by a promising young documentary-maker. SR
Film: My Name Is Khan
Release date: 28th June 2010
Certificate: 12
Running time: 161 mins
Director: Karan Johar
Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Kajol Devgan, Christopher Duncan, Tanay Chhecla
Genre: Drama/Romance/Bollywood
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: DVD
Country: India
Indian super-star Sharukh Khan takes the lead in this sprawling American/Indian epic, chronicling the effects of Bush’s “war-on-terror’” on the Islamic community.
My Name is Khan follows the life of Rizwan Khan, a young man who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome.
After the death of his mother, Khan moves from India to America and is given a job selling cosmetics to hair-saloons. It is here that he meets the love of his life Mandira, played by the beautiful Kajol.
Soon Khan and Mandira are living an idyllic married life. However, this serenity is short-lived as Mandira’s child from another marriage is brutally beaten to death by a group of blood-thirsty youths. Mandira is driven to a mission of justice and, with the understanding that, post 9-11, it is Khan’s Islamic beliefs that got their son killed, throws Khan out onto the street.
With this, Khan begins an epic journey across America to meet George Bush with his message “My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist.”
Not a single scene in this film goes by where Shibani Bathija’s script does not know exactly what it is trying to express. Post 9-11, the Islamic community have been persecuted, and unfairly blamed by a domineering culture in desperate need of a scapegoat. In My Name Is Khan, we have a film that is brave enough to step up and defend the persecuted minority, which is something to admire. Sadly, the film is burdened by its own self-importance, and forsakes intelligent discussion for shameless emotional blackmail. Shibani Bathija’s script makes no attempt to penetrate further than the surface, and reduces this morally complex issue to the level of preachy rhetoric, lazy slogans and vacant, near mechanical cliché.
My Name Is Khan has a disturbing and offensive reliance on moral dualism and simplistic caricature. White America is portrayed as a seething mass of ignorance and stupidity. A populous so idiotic that even the mention of the word ‘terrorist’ is enough to incite a full-blown riot. In more than one scene, the American people somehow manage to take time out of their busy schedule of yanking Burkas, and assaulting young children, to become a blood-thirsty Frankenstein-esque angry mob. Which would be fine if taken in the context of satire or comedic social commentary; but here it is nothing more than faulty and overly simplistic representation.
With the character Mama Jenny, the film stoops to new lows creating a creature so steeped in stereotype that she resembles a cartoon character more than an actual human being. A jive-talking, over-weight, gospel singing nightmare. Perhaps more bafflingly given the film’s main narrative arc, the portrayal of Muslims who aren’t the lovable and comfortingly impotent protagonist are either ashamed of their faith or actually the Jihad wielding fanatics of so much Murdoch fantasy. For a film supposedly about tolerance, it is, at times, outrageously racist.
Karan Johar’s direction relies on a certain brand of Bollywood emotionalism to try and carry his audience through the long running time. At times, it stylistically resembles the works of Milos Forman in its opulent colour, massive scale and character-based humanitarianism. But Karan Johar is playing with fire here, and in light of its subject matter, this cheesy and over-romanticised version of current affairs appears bad-taste, even dangerous.
But most of the anticipation for this film was because of Shahrukh Khan. A huge star in India, many were betting that this would be his breakthrough performance, and for the most part he does create a very likeable, and convincing main character. But they are times where his performance becomes mocking, both he and the film don’t seem to mind occasionally playing the main character’s Aspergers Syndrome for laughs. Ultimately, even if his portrayal was the thing of Oscar winners, it would still be surrounded by a glossy, patronising and offensive melodrama, and Shahrukh’s undeniable talent does little to change this.
An exploitative exercise in sentimentalism that reduces complex issues to the level of Hollywood weepy. AC
Film: Merantau Warrior
Release date: 26th April 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 106 mins
Director: Gareth Evans
Starring: Iko Uwais, Sisca Jessica, Christine Hakim, Mads Koudal
Genre: Martial Arts
Studio: E1
Format: DVD
Country: Indonesia
In the Sumatran region of Indonesia, there comes a time in a young man’s life when he must undertake “Merantau”, a rites-of-passage journey whereby he leaves his village to try and find his place in the world. Writer/director Gareth Evans has taken that premise and spun it into a dangerous adventure.
Yuda’s Merantau starts with a number of setbacks which would have most people running back to their village – the house he’s meant to be staying in has been demolished, there’s no work for a Silat instructor and just now he’s been robbed by a street urchin called Adit. Chasing him through the increasingly narrow alleyways brings Yuda to the point where the momentum of the plot starts to change gears.
Adit’s sister, Astri (Sisca Jessica), is a dancer in a nightclub run by Johnni, and Adit has inadvertently led Yuda (Iko Uwais) there. As Yuda confronts the little thief, Astri and Johnni come out of a side-door, arguing. Turns out, Johnni wants a portion of Astri’s tips. Things get violent, and Yuda steps in. Astri isn’t particularly pleased with her unsolicited knight-in-shining-armour, believing his interference is only going to make things worse. Johnni isn’t too happy either.
Johnni, it turns out, is providing girls to a pair of Eurotrash sex-traffickers called Ratger and Luc, who are in town to pick up their latest shipment of girls. When Ratger points out to him that he’s a girl short, Johnni immediately thinks of Astri as a perfect replacement...
Merantau starts with a deliberate slow pace, grounding the story in context as we are introduced to Yuda, his family and his village life. Evans captures the rolling hills, the grass terraces and the air of tranquillity. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but Yuda is going to sorely miss this lifestyle.
Ratger and Luc get an excellently shot introduction, as they survey the latest consignment for their brothels. Whilst Ratger reclines in a sumptuous looking leather armchair, the girls are given a rather crude medical examination. The treatment of the girls is likely to make your skin crawl. Of the two, Ratger is the hot-headed dominant one, while Luc is the cool-headed voice of reason. When Yuda bursts in and rescues Astri, Ratger demands revenge, but Luc councils a more reasonable course of action – they need to get the girls shipped and don’t have time for vendettas. Of course, Ratger wins out and hires more guys to take on Yuda and get the girl back.
The second half of the film is basically “chase–fight-chase” as Yuda tackles increasingly skilled fighters in his quest to help Astri and Adit. This leads to a scene which could be described as a microcosm of 90s Hong Kong action cinema, when Yuda re-encounter’s Eric. Sparks really fly between these two. Having met and bonded at the beginning of the film, they suddenly find themselves on opposite sides. The ensuing fight, inside the constricted space of an elevator is of epic proportions. As good as the fight itself is, the following unspoken act of honour and brotherhood is even better.
Director Gareth Evan’s approach to the martial arts genre is exactly what fans have been crying out for. Firstly, the fights are choreographed rather than edited together. Secondly, the actors are all proficient martial artists (the exception being Mads Koudal, who has put the time and effort in to ensure he isn’t embarrassed onscreen). And thirdly, the fights are filmed in a straight fashion, rather than the du jour in-your-face shaky-cam. In fact, the length of shots seems to increase as the film progresses, to the point that an attack on Johnni’s bar is a one-take shot which lasts over a minute of screen-time (although the DVD extras point out that that scene in particular took over fifty attempts to complete!).
The acting is very impressive. Iko Uwais was discovered by Gareth Evans when he was making a martial arts documentary and was taken with the young man’s screen presence. It’s certainly not apparent that this is his first film role. Although he doesn’t have a lot of dialogue, he carries it off very well. Sisca Jessica manages to bring some life to a “damsel in distress” role, and delivers a heart-rending monologue about why she and her brother are in the predicament they are in. Yayan Ruhian is another newcomer. He only has a couple of scenes but proves to be very memorable in them.
Best of all, though, is Mads Koudal as Ratger, You can really imagine there are people like him roaming around Jakarta and Bangkok preying on young women with no better futures. It would have been so easy to over-play the part, but Koudal gets it just right, allowing flashes of temper to get the better of him now and again, then reigning back in.
Gareth Evans has studied the competition and delivered a martial arts movie which delivers the drama and acting as much as it does the amazing fights and stunt-work. Fans of the genre owe it to themselves to check this film out, and remember the name of Iko Uwais for the future. MOW
Film: Micmacs
Release date: 21st June 2010
Certificate: 12
Running time: 101 mins
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Dany Boon, Andre Dussollier, Nicolas Marie, Jean Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreau
Genre: Comedy/Crime/Action/Romance
Studio: E1
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: France
With Amelie and Delicatessen now widely regarded as classics in film comedy, and world cinema in general, the big question ahead of Micmacs’s much-hyped release was if it could possibly live up to now bloated expectations of the director.
The story starts with a roadside bomb fatality. The unfortunate’s son, Bazil (Dany Boon), grows up without his father, but he’s found some contentment working in a video shop. Now, over thirty years since his father’s demise, Bazil survives a random bullet to the head that is too risky for doctors to remove. After learning he must live with this precarious bullet, which may take away his life at any moment, his time in recovery causes him to lose his apartment and his job. A man now with nothing left to lose, he steals his hat back from a child and goes on his way, using his cunning and schemes to survive on the streets.
A chance meeting with Placard (Marielle) leads Bazil to a salvage yard and a group of misfits he comes to know as his ‘family’. The oddball group are experts in salvage and repair, all of them sharing some sort of bizarre physical intimacy with metalwork in their bodies. Seeing him as one of their own, they are ready to help Bazil exact playful but meticulous revenge on the two people who’ve wronged him in his life - the makers of his father’s fatal roadside bomb, and the makers of the bullet still lodged in his head…
This film, coming from the hands of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is, of course, a wonderfully theatrical piece of storytelling. An unconventional opening to a comedy with a roadside bomb fatality maybe, but it sets the tone, and leads the way for a whole plethora of characteristically quirky moments from Jeunet. These are woven together through the revenge narrative that highlights the contrastingly stern subject matter of the arms trade. Of course, it’s these quirks that scream of Jeunet’s style; Bazil sucking salad cream from the sachet, an amorous couple exploding on a land mine, and even the credit sequence seamlessly entwined with a film within the film.
The family are full of idiosyncrasies, mirroring their home of collected damaged household items, with their talent and teamwork bringing them back to life. Hilarious and subtle performances from many of the family, notably Dominique Pinon as Fracasse - a hot-headed human cannonball, always at home in a Jeunet film - and Marie-Julie Baup (the talents of Calculette being instant visual calculation of size, weight or distance – this will prove very useful as the revenge scheme is put into practice).
The relationship between Bazil and La Môme Caoutchouc, the contortionist of the group, brought some touches of sentiment to the story – but it wasn’t weighted or explored significantly enough to have the right balance. Bazil could have fallen with more gusto, and given him more to risk. The family were literally shooting themselves out of cannons for him, and if Bazil had become more emotionally involved, it would have upped the ante. Despite this, a bright spark leaps from the screen the moment Bazil bursts into song down the chimney to where the contortionist is putting her skills to use in the villain’s domain. It was a surprisingly sweet moment.
Fortunately, an underdeveloped romantic subplot doesn’t tarnish the experience. Each frame is measured and absolutely makes the most of the production design, from the sweeping shots of landmine-scattered landscapes to the intimate points of view moments. The salvage heap, home to the family of oddballs, lays host to some genius mechanics and design, and all married by perfect grading.
Perhaps this detail is overwhelming, and that Jeunet’s almost obsessive attention to detail is unnecessarily OTT, but this an intentionally theatrical experience.
Transporting you to a bizarre world, this funny and intricate story is what Jean-Pierre Jeunet does best – even if it doesn’t quite reach the dizzy hits of Delicatessen or Amelie. VB
Film: Mesrine
Release date: 25th January 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 237 mins
Director: Jean-François Richet
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Cécile De France, Gérard Depardieu, Gilles Lellouche, Roy Dupuis
Genre: Crime/Action/Thriller/Drama
Studio: Momentum
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: France
The critical and commercial success of this film has brought the name of gangster Jacques Mesrine to much wider attention than simply that of his homeland, France – and, as the biopic illustrates; it’s a level of notoriety he would have basked in.
Mesrine was a thorn in the authorities’ sides for nearly two decades, committing countless robberies, murders and escapes – so many that a film depiction warranted two lengthy features – Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Mesrine: Public Enemy Number 1 . Each feature was released separately in cinemas, but both have been released together on DVD. Given the seamless continuation of the timeline over both movies, it’s the correct decision – far less two separate movies than a single movie having been split out of consideration for bottoms, but not our wallets.
In the first film, we follow Mesrine from his time serving in the French Army during the Algerian War, in the late-50s, to his return to France, where he was easily swayed to follow a life of crime (flash cars, beautiful women…), starting relatively small scale (robbing people’s homes) before becoming involved with big-time gangster Guido (suitable sleazy performance from the ever reliable Gérard Depardieu). This feature shows a younger, more suave and charming Mesrine, and the majority of his criminal activities are covered here – as well as the more exciting action set pieces (his prison escapes will have action junkies on the edge of their seats) – as he works his way quickly up the criminal ladder.
The second movie starts in similarly thrilling fashion – as our protagonist escapes from court – but the events at the back end of the first film have left him more jaded – he’s now overweight, unkempt, and his crimes less glamorous, including the kidnap of an old man for ransom money. He’s also consumed with paranoia and obsessed with his public image…
A film of this ilk stands or falls largely by the central performance, but Vincent Cassel nails it – never in doubt if you’ve seen his performance in Irréversible. From the cocky two-bit criminal with an eye for the ladies, to the world-weary, pot-bellied has-been, Vincent embodies every stage in Jacques life, and is totally believable as a man capable of cold blooded murder in one scene (violently stabbing a pimp to death), and charming a lady into his bed the next (and he manages a few).
For a running time of 237 minutes, over both films, however, there’s a surprising lack of depth. Minimal character development for the supporting cast, as we quickly hop from one event to another (sometimes bypassing years) without any indication, and with little understanding of what took Jacques there. Choosing not to delve too far into his psyche, or explain the choices he made, the film is somewhat shallow and showy (production values are second to none) – cramming in as many crimes as possible for an electrifying rollercoaster ride that is representative of Hollywood more than European cinema.
However, when it comes to action, they’ve stayed within the realms of realism – from large scale shootouts to car chases; you can believe this is exactly how events went down. It’s also this level of authenticity that makes Mesrine’s more odious acts completely convincing, and therefore more unsettling, including the murder of a reporter who dared to give him negative press.
Unlike Hollywood, also, the film doesn’t glorify or put Mesrine onto an iconic pedestal. He’s a bad husband (who’ll force a gun into his wife’s mouth), uncaring father, selfish, egotistical and downright nasty. Unlike many criminal biopics, where we are asked to empathise with the figure because of a life of poverty or ill treatment, we are shown that Mesrine comes from a comfortable home, a kind and good natured parentage, and is motivated purely by his craving for self-reward and celebrity – taking great pleasure when he earns Public Enemy #1 status.
He’s also far from infallible. Rather than giving the authorities the run around and getting to enjoy his ill-gotten gains, his plans are continuously botched (there’s a wonderful apt comical touch when the song Stand By Your Name comes on the radio after another plan is bungled); he gets caught on numerous occasions, and dealt fairly cruel punishment (the scenes where we see him brutally beaten and tortured by guards are particularly off-putting – Cassel afforded the opportunity to flex his acting muscles in the subsequent breakdown); and he is never presented as content in his chosen lifestyle – moving from seedy nightclubs to hiding out in the backwoods (there’s no glamour to his surroundings or associates). This is a man who led a life we can now pity rather than take any kind of voyeuristic pleasure from.
Even if the filmmakers were always a bit too eager to get to the exciting bits, the lack of sugar-coating and Vincent Cassel’s career-defining performance make this one of Europe’s best-ever crime flicks. DH
