I'm not sure what I expected from this pair of films. People have compared them to Scarface and I think that's fair. For me, they were interesting to watch but I would never buy them. After a bank heist goes wrong, Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel) is arrested and taken to trial. He promptly escapes, is recaptured, tried and sent to prison. There, incensed that a Chilean dictator stole his thunder in the press, he pens his autobiography. He also acquaints himself with his neighbor, another perennial escapee named Francois Besse (Mathieu Amalric). The two have completely different personalities but similar goals so they collaborate to escape once again from maximum security. Mesrine meets his newest lady love, Sylvia (Ludivine Sagnier), soon thereafter and the three move to England to hide out. Mesrine just can't abide not being in the spotlight and Besse eventually gets fed up, leaving Mesrine to look for a new partner. He settles on Charlie (Gerard Lanvin), an ex-con with ties to left-wing terrorist organizations. In his mind, Mesrine is a revolutionary looking to bring down a corrupt system but everyone else can see the death spiral speeding to its inevitable conclusion.
There are very few moments of levity in either film, which makes it feel like kind of a slog. I'm glad I took breaks between them to watch other things. Another issue was the copy I watched had terrible subtitles which sometimes made it difficult to tell what was happening, as I do not speak French. I'm sure a legitimate version would avoid that particular pitfall but I don't think I could sit through this again just for better subtitles. If you're a fan of gritty gangster films, you'll probably enjoy this way more than I did.
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