Mesrine: l'instinct de mort Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Mesrine: l'instinct de mort Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 21, 2010

Jean-François Richet's "L'instinct de mort" a.k.a "Mesrine: Killer Instinct" (2008) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Canadian distributors Alliance. Most unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on this release. In French, with optional English and French subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

One dangerous man

Note: Unlike Momentum Pictures, Alliance are releasing L'instinct de mort and L'ennemi public n.1 separately. This article, which was written for the Momentum Pictures Blu-ray release, addresses both films.

Jacques Mesrine was the real deal. By the early 70s his record was bigger than a phone book. The French Police declared him L'ennemi public n.1 a.k.a Public Enemy Number One; he declared war on them. When in 1973 General Pinochet took over Chile and consequently appeared on the front page of every major French newspaper, Mesrine got so upset, he paid a reporter to interview him and tell his story - he had to repair his public image. It worked, and even Ilich Ramirez Sanchez a.k.a Carlos the Jackal, the most famous international terrorist, took an active interest in Mesrine's "work".

Mesrine (Vincent Cassel, La haine) served in the French Army during the Algerian War, but got fed up with it and came back home. He was immediately introduced to an influential gangster, Guido (Gerard Depardieu, Cyrano de Bergerac), who had big plans for him. Before he started "working", Mesrine went on vacation to Spain where he met his future wife, Sofia (Elena Anaya, Sex and Lucia).

In 1962, Mesrine and his friends attempted to rob a bank in Neubourg, Normandy, but were caught and sentenced to eighteen months in jail. Mesrine got out and took a job as a designer, and for awhile it looked like he might become a family man, but lost it, and Guido welcomed him back in his gang.

By 1968, Mesrine had become so hot he had to flee to Canada. Sofia had gone back to Spain, but he already had a new woman to love, Jeanne Schneider (Cecile De France, Haute tension), an ex-escort girl. In Quebec, the two did a couple of jobs and then ran off to the U.S. - where they were caught and extradited back to Canada. Mesrine was quickly sentenced to ten years in jail and sent to the infamous Saint-Vincent-de-Paul prison (referred to as SCU).

In 1972, Mesrine escaped from SCU together with Jean-Paul Mercier (Roy Dupuis, The Ideal Man), a tough goon with connections to FLQ (Quebec Liberation Front). The two robbed a number of banks and even went back to SCU hoping to get a few of their friends out. They failed, and their friends got killed, but the media became obsessed with Mesrine. Almost immediately after that, Mesrine fled to Venezuela.

By the end of 1972, Mesrine was back in France, doing what he could do best - robbing banks. In 1973, he was caught again, but an accomplice, Michel Ardouin (Samuel Le Bihan, Fureur), helped him escape from the courtroom where a judge was about to read his sentence. The French media went berserk.

Mesrine fell in love with Sylvie Jeanjacquot (Ludivine Sagnier, Swimming Pool), an elegant call girl, and for awhile the two enjoyed life. But in 1977 he was caught again, and sentenced to twenty years in jail. This time Mesrine was sent to the notorious La Santé, where he met Francois Besse (Mathieu Amalric, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). Here Mesrine wrote his book, "L'lnstinct de mort" a.k.a "Killer Insinct". A year later, he managed to escape with Besse, and his book became a bestseller.

Besse was arrested in Belgium. He left Mesrine after his friend became interested in politics - Mesrine wanted to change the system; Besse wanted to milk it. An old friend from SCU, Charly Bauer (Gerard Lanvin, En plein coeur), appeared and started talking to Mesrine about the Red Brigades. A couple of months later, he agreed to meet their leaders. At the same time, Mesrine became enormously upset with Jacques Dallier (Alain Fromager), an outspoken fascist and journalist, who wrote an article in Minute (a French newspaper sympathizing with the extreme-right) describing him as a terrible man without morals. Mesrine and Bauer beat up Dallier so bad they assumed they had killed him, but he survived.

The end came abruptly. Mesrine had become so big, President Valery Giscard d'Estaing asked the French Army to assist the Police and get rid of him. A couple of months later, Mesrine was killed in an ambush on the outskirts of Paris. It was November 2, 1979.

I have nothing but great things to say about Jean-François Richet's L'instinct de mort and L'ennemi public n.1. The two films are well constructed and, more importantly, incredibly informative. In fact, they offer such a detailed account of the life the notorious French gangster led that at times it is almost impossible to keep up with the names of all the different people he met or had a relationship with.

The acting is superb - and how could it not be; with a few minor exceptions, these two films contain the crème de la crème of French actors (Vincent Cassel, Gerard Depardieu, Mathieu Amalric, Gérard Lanvin, Cécile De France, Ludivine Sagnier, Samuel Le Bihan, etc.). Cassel, in particular, who apparently lost and gained more than forty pounds during the shooting of the film, is outstanding.

Mesrine: l'instinct de mort Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jean-Francois Richet's Mesrine: L'instinct de mort arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Canadian distributors Alliance.

Those of you who have been waiting for a Region-A release of this powerful French gangster film will be pleased to hear that Alliance's high-definition transfer is very good. But how does it compare to the one Momentum Pictures used for their Blu-ray release in the United Kingdom? The two look practically identical - however, they are not. Detail and clarity are very similar, and some of the contrast fluctuations I noticed on the Momentum Pictures release have been retained, but there are less compression artifacts on the Alliance release. Some of the digital noise is also gone. Additionally, the color-scheme on the Alliance release is just a tiny bit darker (mostly the various greens and blues). This said, unless you have the UK and Canadian releases with you, and can compare them side by side, I doubt you would be able to tell that there is any difference between the two. With other words, if you already have the UK release, I would not recommend an upgrade. For the record, while viewing Mesrine: L'instinct de mort I did not see any annoying scratches, damage marks, flecks, or stains to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Mesrine: l'instinct de mort Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and French Dolby Digital 5.1. For the record, Alliance have provided optional English and French subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is identical to the one found on the Momentum Pictures Blu-ray release - which means that it is excellent. The bass is potent and punchy, the rear channels not overly active but very effective, and the high-frequencies not overdone. The dialog is crisp, stable, clean, and exceptionally easy to follow. There are no balance issues with Eloi Painchaud's music score either. The English translation is very good.

Mesrine: l'instinct de mort Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Most unfortunately, there are absolutely no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray release whatsoever.

Mesrine: l'instinct de mort Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Alliance Blu-ray release of Jean-François Richet's L'instinct de mort is a very good alternative for those who could not take advantage of Momentum Pictures' Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Please keep in mind that, unlike Momentum Pictures, Alliance are releasing L'instinct de mort and L'ennemi public n.1 separately. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.