Do we all remember “Mesrine,” the two-part French crime epic starring Vincent Cassel (“Irreversible,” “Ocean’s 12”) as Jacques Mesrine who became France’s most notorious criminal throughout the 1970s?
Trailers for the film hit last year and the pictures were supposed to hit in the U.S. late summer, starting with Part One, “Mesrine: Killer Instinct” hitting August 28 and then Part Two: “Mesrine: Public Enemy Number One” arriving a week later on September 4. However, the company behind “Mesrine” was of course Senator Films, the cash-strapped indie distrib that went belly up last year and then had to sell off each of its films (Sundance hit “Brooklyn’s Finest” being the most well known which was sold off to Overture and is now finally coming out March 5).
Like many Senator Films, “Mesrine” sat in limbo until it was finally picked up by the small indie, New America Vision and according to release date posted at ComingSoon, the films are now set to hit on April 16 in limited release (and NAV also has a graphic on their site that says April 2010, so it seems to all match).
However, for its U.S. release, it seems that NAV has dropped the criminal’s surname from the title and two different titles simply calling the film, “Public Enemy Number One” (and subtitled, “A Film In Two Parts”). We frankly, don’t care what they call it, we just want to see it.
“Mesrine” scored an impressive ten nominations at last year’s Cesar Awards (France’s Oscars) and the picture went on to take three awards including Best Director, Best Actor (Vincent Cassel) and Best Sound. The pictures also star Gérard Depardieu, Ludivine Sagnier (“Swimming Pool”), Samuel Le Bihan, Mathieu Amalric (“A Christmas Tale,” and the villain in “Quantum Of Solace” for Americans), Gilles Lellouche, Elena Anaya (“Sex & Lucia”) and Cecile de France (the gorgeous star of Claude Miller’s underrated 2008 French film, “Un Secret,” who also has a lead role in Clint Eastwood’s upcoming spiritual drama, “Hereafter”).
New American Vision is relatively new and small we believe, so the limited part of the “Public Enemy Number One” release might need to be emphasized, but better that they’re coming out limited than not at all.
*A U.S. publicist tells us the April 16 date is not 100% locked in though, but we imagine in-and-around that date will still happen.