Mesrine: Killer Instinct

Mesrine: Killer Instinct

2008 French biographical crime film
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Mesrine: Killer Instinct
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L'Instinct de Mort (2007)

Directed by Jean-François Richet

Genres - Crime | Sub-Genres - Biopic [feature], Crime Thriller, Docudrama, Period Film | Release Date - Aug 27, 2010 (USA - Limited) | Run Time - 113 min. | Countries - Canada, France, Italy | MPAA Rating - R

Synopsis by Nathan Southern

This tough and gritty French-language crime drama represents the premier installment in a two-part series of features on the life and doings of notorious Gallic hood Jacques Mesrine (1936-1979). Mesrine is played, in both installments, by actor Vincent Cassel, who reportedly underwent massive weight gain and weight loss to convincingly portray the volatile Mesrine at various periods of his life. Director Jean-François Richet begins in 1979, with Mesrine's uncommonly violent death, whereby he and a beautiful young woman are suddenly (and fatally) ambushed by Parisian police not far from Mesrine's place of birth. Richet then flashes back to the Franco-Algerian War of the late '50s and a brutal interrogation undergone by Mesrine. Following a military discharge, Mesrine returns to his parents' suburb of Clichy, where his dad has arranged a pathetic job for him in a lace-making factory. Never one to take humiliation lying down, Jacques perceives burglary, larceny, and racketeering as much-superior options and decides to pursue a life of crime via a "business partnership" with childhood buddy Paul (Gilles Lellouche), who works for mobster Guido (Gérard Depardieu). As the years pass, Jacques works his way up through the ranks of the underworld; via Paul, he also meets and falls hard for two women: Pigalle streetwalker Sarah (Florence Thomassin), and Sofia (Elena Anaya), a beautiful Spanish woman with whom he cohabitates after doing time in a French prison. Following a brief and unsuccessful attempt to "go straight," Jacques reconnects with Guido, then finds it necessary to escape from France to Canada with his new mistress, Jeanne (Cécile De France). Unfortunately, another prison sentence is waiting for him there, replete with brutal solitary confinement, but the possibility of a daring escape beckons. The second half of the Mesrine saga, entitled Mesrine: L'Énnemi Public No. 1 for French release, followed immediately after and picks up where this installment wraps.

http://www.allmovie.com/movie/linstinct-de-mort-v468217

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Directed by
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Produced by
Thomas Langmann
André Rouleau
Maxime Rémillard
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Written by
Abdel Raouf Dafri
Jean-François Richet
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Screenplay by add_black screenplay by
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Narrated by add_black narrated by
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Music by
Part One:
Eloi Painchaud
Part Two:
Marco Beltrami
Marcus Trumpp
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Cinematography
Robert Gantz
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Edited by
Part One:
Eloi Painchaud
Part Two:
Bill Pankow
Hervé Schneid
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Animation by add_black animation by
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Distributed by
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Release date
  • 22 October 2008 (2008-10-22) (Part One)
  • 19 November 2008 (2008-11-19) (Part Two)
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Running time
246 minutes
Part One: 113 minutes
Part Two: 133 minutes
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Country
France
Canada
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Language
French
Spanish
English
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Budget
$50 million
Box office
$46.3 million

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

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  • Filmed back-to-back with Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008), which stands as the second half of the two-part story.
  • Jean-Pierre Cassel was originally set for the role of Jacques Mesrine's father (ultimately held by Michel Duchaussoy) in this and Mesrine: Killer Instinct (2008).
  • Benoît Magimel, who was at one time set to star, stepped down from the Mesrine project without informing producer Thomas Langmann, choosing instead to issue a press release. As a result of this a fight erupted on November 25th 2004 at the Intertalent talent agency between Langmann and Magimel's agent, François Samuelson, where Langmann headbutted Samuelson and broke his nose. Samuelson was on sick leave for nine days and pressed charges against Langmann.
  • 'Samy Nacéri' was considered for a role.
  • Both of the love interests in the film - Elena Anaya who plays Sofia and Cécile De France who plays Jeanne - were both born on the same day, July 17th, 1975.

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