INTERNATIONAL SUPERSTAR VINCENT CASSEL STARS AS JACQUES MESRINE IN THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE ACCLAIMED, REAL-LIFE UNDERWORLD SAGA OF THE MOST FAMOUS CRIMINAL IN THE HISTORY OF FRANCE
Available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc
February 22, 2011
Critic’s Pick! “A riveting, visceral entertainment that evokes a Gallic Scarface…† – The New York Times
“The best gangster film of the year. A splendid and stylish crime epic.†–Newhouse News Service
“The real-life career criminal Jacques Mesrine is seen in all his wild, scary, violent glory.†— Philadelphia Inquirer
Chicago, IL (January 3, 2011) – Jacques Mesrine was the last of the great French gangsters, his criminal career spanning more than 20 years of kidnappings, robberies, murders and prison escapes in some half-dozen countries. Mesrine’s criminal reign came to an end in a hail of bullets shot by police in the middle of Paris in 1979, a spectacular demise that put the crowing touch on his legend. Now, nearly 30 years after his death, the true story of Jacques Mesrine can be told in Mesrine: Killer Instinct, the first film in an acclaimed two-part crime saga that’s received recognition around the globe. Music Box Films Home Entertainment will release Mesrine: Killer Instinct on Blu-ray disc and DVD for the first time on February 22nd for the suggested retail prices of $29.95 and $34.95 respectively.
An ambitious and sprawling epic tale of a life in crime, Mesrine: Killer Instinct stars international superstar Vincent Cassel (Ocean’s 13, Eastern Promises and, most recently, Black Swan) as the brutal, brooding and arguably brilliant man who was declared “French Public Enemy Number One.” Mesrine: Killer Instinct, the first film in the two-part production, tells of Jacques Mesrine’s early years: his return home after serving with the French army in the Algerian War in the late 1950s; his first experiences with crime, violence and the underworld; his intensifying criminal activities in France and across Europe; his complex and impassioned relationships with women; and his flight overseas from the French authorities to Canada in 1968.
Masterfully directed by Jean-Francois Richet (Assault on Precinct 13), Messrine: Killer Instinct is the first film in the two-part Jacques Mesrine saga. The second film, Mesrine: Public Enemy #1, also directed by Richet, details how the “Man of One Hundred Faces†cultivated his own legend, battled the penal system and continued on with his brutal but undeniably intoxicating life of crime. Music Box Films Home Entertainment will release Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 on Blu-ray disc and DVD on March 29th.