News: MESRINE: Killer Instinct & Public Enemy No. 1 - Released on Blu-ray and DVD 25th January

César Award winner Vincent Cassel (Eastern Promises, Oceans Thirteen) and Academy Award nominee Gerard Depardieu (The Man in the Iron Mask, Cyrano de Bergerac) star in the critically acclaimed, award winning double feature MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT and MESRINE PUBLIC ENEMY NO 1 a lavish gangster biopic released together as a two disc special edition DVD set and single Blu-Ray disc on 25 January 2010 by Momentum Pictures.

Directed by Jean-François Richet (Assault on Precinct 13) and described by the critics as ‘lethally seductive, irresistibly energetic and dangerously charismatic’ (Little White Lies), the two-part, four hour epic charts the rise and fall of the often marvelled, yet utterly ruthless gangster Jacques Mesrine. The films follow the incredible series of hold-ups, prison breaks and kidnappings and are brought to the screen almost 30 years after Mesrine’s spectacular death, shot down in a hail of police bullets.

MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT introduces us to Jacques Mesrine (Cassel), a loyal son and dedicated soldier back home and living with his parents after serving in the Algerian War. Handsome and charming, he is soon seduced by the neon glamour of Sixties Paris and the easy money it presents. Mentored by Guido (Depardieu), Mesrine soon moves swiftly up the criminal ladder, choosing the high risk life of a gangster over the honest life of the hard working family. After pulling off an audacious heist he and his lover Jeanne (Cecile de France), flee to Canada where the opportunity of one big payout lures him out of hiding and propels him towards international notoriety.

The incredible and brutal story continues in MESRINE: PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1. Now back in France, Mesrine is finally in police custody and facing justice for his crimes but he is soon on the run once again. After escaping a courtroom and kidnapping the judge at gunpoint, Mesrine is declared Public Enemy Number One and finds an adversary in his chief and most dogged pursuer, Commander Broussard. Broussard soon corners Mesrine who is condemned to a maximum security prison where he writes his first memoirs, establishing himself as a household name and anti-hero across France.

With fellow inmate Francois Besse (Mathieu Amalric) he stages another daring escape and disappears into the lawless underworld, taunting the police and reinventing himself as a celebrity criminal through his savvy manipulation of the media. After such a monumental rise, comes the inevitable fall as Broussard closes in, bringing the life of Jacques Mesrine to full bloody circle.

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

• Killer Instinct Making Of – 48 mins
• Public Enemy Making Of – 45 mins

BLU RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

As above plus the following:

• Making Of – 18 mins
• Music Making Of – 10 mins
• Deleted Scenes
• Jean –Francois Richet Interview – 25 mins

DVD INFORMATION

Title:                      MESRINE KILLER INSTINCT / MESRINE: PUBLIC ENEMY NO.1

Released by:       Momentum Pictures

Release Date:     25 January 2010

Format:                Blu-ray and DVD

Certificate:          18

RRP:                       DVD: £19.99 / BD: £24.99

Genre:                   Gangster Thriller

Running Time:   Killer Instinct- 109 mins / Public Enemy No.1 – 128 mins

Catalogue No:     DVD- MP909D / BD - MP909BR

Website:               www.mesrine-movie.co.uk

Look out for a full review soon....