Mesrine - this French Film on now BBC2

Top notch indeed, brilliant.

Superb film. Part One is the best.

Part 2 was on straight after but too late to watch, Jacques Mesrine the most wanted man in France was some gangster , for me to watch a film in sub titles at that time it had to be good - and it was.

I hated every minute of both parts although part 1 being mostly biographal, was perhaps less annoying.

I read his book - The Death Instinct, many years ago and was waiting for someone to do a film about him; they shouldn't have bothered. Mesrine was a bully and psychpath, he admitted to being part of a torture squad (Algerians being the sufferers) in his army days. Having said that, he was extremely intelligent, articulate and with a great sense of humour. The films do not cover half the things he got up to, whether it was escapes or daring robberys, taking the píss out of the Gendarmeie or even his barbarity. The book fascinated me, and is a great read, maybe one day some director with talent will make a decent film of Jacques Mesrine; this film certainly wasn't IMHO.

Below is a pic of JM laying dead in his car after being executed.. Don't look if it will bother ye..

I forgot to add, THEY stopped publication of his book in the late 70' while he was in nick i think, so as to his family not receiving any royalties. Some years later (after he was dead funnily enough) some editor decided to re-release his book; the owner of Champ libre (the publisher) was found shot dead in his car a few days later.