Malèna

2000 Director Giuseppe Tornatore

This beautifully shot film is about a young man's infatuation for a beautiful older woman that blooms amidst the outbreak of World War II.

Renato is a 13-year-old boy growing up in a small Sicilian community. Mussolini has risen to power and has declared war upon England and France, but Renato has other things on his mind, mostly girls. While hanging out with his friends by the seashore, Renato spies Malèna, the daughter of one of his schoolteachers, whose husband Nino is fighting with Mussolini's army. Renato is immediately obsessed with Malèna and follows her like a lost puppy, spying on her whenever circumstances permit and imagining her as his co-star in elaborate erotic fantasies inspired by his favorite movies. Renato, however, is hardly the only man in town to be struck by Malèna's charms, and her beauty leads to resentment from the women of the community. Malèna's circumstances take a turn for the worst after her husband is reported to have died in combat, and she is left to the forces of envy and gossip. The narrow minded jealousy of the town's women force her into the very circumstance that they all believe she came from. She is brutally treated and exiled. Renato has some less than encouraging news to report when Nino turns out to be alive and finds his spouse is missing.

Malèna was written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, best known for Cinema Paradiso. This film marks him as not only a very accomplished director and writer but also as an engaging and compassionate story teller. It is one of those films that once seen, is never forgotten.

Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1

2008 Director Jean-Francois Richet

The life of Jacques Mesrine comes once and for all to a full bloody circle in a climax only fitting for Public Enemy No. 1.

In the climactic second part of the Mesrine saga, Jacques Mesrine is back in France after his brazen assault on the maximum-security prison from which he daringly escaped. Once again in police custody and facing stern justice for his crimes, the "man of a thousand faces" escapes directly from the courtroom after kidnapping the judge at gunpoint. As Mesrine continues to author his own legend through the media and his own memoirs, he becomes a household name and anti-hero across all of France. As he plans his last and greatest escape, leaving France - and the iconic character he has created for himself - behind, the police begin to close in and his monumental rise begins to shadow the inevitable fall.

The split screen shots that were used to such good effect in part 1 are absent in this concluding installment although all the loose cinematographic ends are all tied up very neatly. Equally fast paced, this is very watchable. The character development is handled superbly with Mesrine acquiring a captivating charisma along with his new found fame and confidence.

Mesrine: Killer Instinct

2008 Director Jean-Francois Richet

The first part of an epic two-film saga. Killer Instinct introduces us to Jacques Mesrine at the beginning of his incredible true-life career of bank heists, prison breaks and kidnappings throughout the 60's and 70's and across three continents.

Recently returned from the war in Algeria, Mesrine soon bores of the 9 to 5 life and gradually drifts into a life of crime under the tutelage of veteran gangster Guido played in a very Brondoesque style by Gerard Depardieu. He quickly discovers he has a gift for robbing banks and forms a duo with lover Jeanne Schneider to rival Bonnie and Clyde. When the couple is finally hunted down in the Arizona desert, Mesrine is sentenced to ten years in a maximum-security penitentiary. But he is about to prove that no prison is big enough to contain him as his larger-than-life story unfolds.

This is a superbly made film that makes very effective use of split screen. It has the grit and realism reminiscent of the Bourne Supremacy and keeps you at the edge of your seat throughout. Unlike other films of this genre it shows that people are very complex and that compassion and caring can co-exist quite happily with cold blooded brutality. This will undoubtedly become a cult classic like the Godfather. Vincent Cassel plays the role brilliantly.