DVD OF THE WEEK

MESRINE: PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER 1 ****
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Ludvine Sagnier, Gerard Depardieu Dir: Jean-Francois Richet

This is obviously the week for epic biographical films. Not only the two Steven Soderbergh examinations of Che Guevara (see below), but this ambitious duo of films about the notorious French criminal Jacques Mesrine.
Yes, this isn't one but two films. In Europe they were released a year apart, the first one being called Mesrine: Killer Instinct (the title of the book he wrote during one stay in prison), but here the whole shebang is spread across two disks of a double DVD and take the name of the second outing.
The first film charts his rise, from being called upon to commit brutalities as a soldier in Algeria, to his initiation with Gerard Depardieu's mob boss and subsequent rise through the criminal ranks. Vincent Cassel, always a force to be reckoned with, turns in a career best performance as the mercurial thug, one minute railing with existential angst against the absurdities of society, the next slipping into casual shocking violence.
The second film finds him back in France (after a quiet sojourn in Canada ended in a wild public crime spree), and making one of his celebrated escapes from the police. In all he did this four times, becoming a household name throughout France and a veritable folk hero after the publication of his – largely made-up – book.
Lending notable support in the second film is ex-Bond villain Mathieu Amalric as one of the several partners in crime that Mesrine picked up before his eventual death in a hail of gunfire on a Parisian street. You see this at the top of the first film, so don't think I'm spoiling it.
All in all Mesrine is splendid stuff. A film cannot hope to encompass all the details of a life and this doesn't try – it is a specific view of certain aspects of the Mesrine story, but is both enlightening and a damn good crime thriller.

We seem to have a deluge of Steven Soderbergh films at present. The Girlfriend Experience came out a couple of weeks back and now we have no fewer than three more fresh films on the shelves. The big two are his diptych about the life of Ernesto 'Che” Guevara, the beating heart of the Cuban revolution and face that spawned a thousand student posters.
And was there ever an actor more typecast to play Che than Benicio Del Toro? He is magnificent – real and affecting, understated and human. Che Pt1 (****) follows two strands. The first is the revolution itself, from Che's first meeting with Fidel Castro through their long struggle in the mountains and jungles. This is inter-cut with a post-revolutionary Che addressing the (mostly hostile) United Nations.
Che Pt2 (***) is a more gruelling watch. It follows Che as he relocates to Bolivia and attempts to ferment the same revolutionary overthrow of the government as was achieved in Cuba. It didn't work and eventually led to his death and, while difficult to watch at times and long (each film clocks in at two and a quarter hours), it serves as an essential counterpoint to the successes and optimism of the first film. Strangely, both films are surprisingly unemotional. You never get inside Che the man, who often appears as only an incidental character in the greater scheme of things. But there is depth and a historical perspective which make the entire work an extraordinary achievement.

Matt Damon puts on the fat suit for The Informant! (***) to play a corporate whistle-blower who may not be all he seems. Soderbergh directs in a bright breezy style, complete with cheerful retro design and music, while the constant use of voiceover forces us into Damon's mind, an interesting and confusing gambit since most of what he says are lies. Some may find this irritatingly obtuse in its approach but there is a lot of fun to be had in the web of intrigue, especially since it was based – to some degree at least – on a true story.