Reviewed by Tony Baer: JACQUES MESRINE – The Death Instinct.

JACQUES MESRINE – The Death Instinct. Originally published in French as L’Instinct de Mort. Filmed as L’instinct de mort (released in English as Mesrine: Killer Instinct) is the first part of a 2008 French biographical crime film about Jacques Mesrine, a notorious real-life French gangster. Directed by Jean-François Richet and starring Vincent Cassel. Autobiography of a French bank robber. Mesrine lives for thrills. His favorite is the double bank robbery. You rob one bank, and when the cops are busy responding, you go down a couple blocks and rob another. When he’s out of the clink, he’s living high on the hog. Truffles and champagne, whores and heists. Ironically, with a sense of justice. He keeps his word. When he takes a whore for a wife, she can leave the life. She can trust him. When the pimps show up to reclaim their property, he slaughters them, burying their bodies in the park. He’s no use for pimps. He promises the warden he’ll escape by a certain date. He won’t disappoint.…