Left march

When the first part of the French Enemy of the State No. 1, directed by Jean-Francois Richet, was released in Russia in mid-November, there was nothing to write about it. Yes, it seemed obvious that this biography of the famous French gangster of the 1960s and 1970s, Jacques Mesrin, was the biggest French project of the decade. That Vincent Cassel, who played the hero, once again showed himself to be a fantastic actor. But the actual person of Mesrin, and therefore the essence of the film, was in a fog. Why on earth was this person considered enemy No. 1 in France? Can any gangster claim to be the main enemy of society in modern history? Even if he is desperate: he robbed a bunch of banks, killed policemen and security guards, escaped from the most protected prisons four times and could change his appearance, like Sherlock Holmes?

The second part of the film is released on December 11 and has the iconic subtitle "Legend". She puts everything in its place. Mesrin was not so much a bandit as Robin Hood. No, he did not distribute the loot to the Parisian clochards. But he fought against the bourgeois system.

It seems that the world really did not foresee that a crisis would come. By 2008, the world considered itself completely mired in vile bourgeois hoarding. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain why it was in 2008 that several films appeared at once that sympathized with the supporters of revolutionary explosions - up to natural ones, with the use of nitroglycerin and plastite.

Germany put forward its super hit "Baader-Meinhof Complex" for consideration by the "Oscar" committee, which in absentia caused a stir in RuNet, especially on left-wing radical sites. If you believe the reviews of those few who saw it, the film, with all the bloody "buts", makes you understand, that is, forgive and at the same time romanticize the members of one of the most - God forgive me - legendary terrorist groups in the history of modern Europe. We are talking about the “Red Army Faction”, which operated in the FRG and especially declared itself in the 1970s. The most famous German actors are in the cast: Baader is played by Moritz Bleibtreu, and Ulrike Meinhof is played by Martina Gedeck. According to the producer of the film, Bernd Eichinger, this is a film about his youth.

In America, Steven Soderbergh's biopic of "Che" is finally released for more than four hours, which received the Cannes Prize for Best Actor: Che Guevara portrayed Benicio del Toro. Now the film is called "Partizan". Comandante Che is shown in it as a noble, attentive to people, a revolutionary for all time.

In the same year, the documentary film Maradona by Emir Kusturica was also sensational, in which the master of modern filmmaking reverently comes to the conclusion that if his hero Maradona had not accidentally been fascinated by playing football, then, due to his indomitable energy and desire to help people, he would also become would be a revolutionary of the level of Comandante Che.

So "Enemy of the State No. 1" voluntarily or involuntarily fits into the trend. The official press release of the film says that Jacques Mesrin for the French is a star no dimmer than cinema. That his life and fate is a truly folk epic. And that the French generally love gangsters who rob the loot of the rich, but do not offend old women on the streets. The world shares this love. It is worth recalling the huge number of Hollywood films in which - with all the respect America has for private property - we are asked to sympathize with successful thieves if they do not cheat old women, but the rich. But France still stands apart. No wonder it was she who gave rise to so many literary gangsters, including Arsene Lupin and Fantômas. Mesrin, to whose capture the army units, that is, in fact, all the forces of the state, were unsuccessfully thrown, wins in comparison with these characters already because he was once real. In practice, he proved the theorem: one single anti-hero is capable of resisting the entire power of the state for quite a long time (and two decades - not long?).

France's love of big criminals after "Enemy of the State" begins to look perverse. In the second part, the episodes are impressive, as Jacques Mesrin is rushed by guards in the most severe, according to the film, French prison. Russian viewers of the older generation, I'm afraid, will consider it a sanatorium. Mesrin is called none other than "Monsieur Jacques." Would you like a cigar? Please, sir! A typewriter? Now I'm running away! In most other countries of the world, and especially in America, police officers and wardens never spare the criminal who killed their colleagues.

This is one of the two main lines of the film. "Enemy of the State No. 1" - that a criminal in modern times can become a pop star. Mesrin, in fact, the first pop star of our time, sparkled in the criminal world. Interestingly, he became his own producer. It was in prison that he took the risk of writing a memoir about himself, in which he confessed to a number of murders. And before the trial! According to the lawyer, he doomed himself to the guillotine with this book. But Mesrin was smarter than his lawyer and knew that in modern times, pop stars are not executed, and he did not doubt that he would also escape from this prison.

But the second main line of the film - revolutionary - is, of course, more entertaining. From episode to episode, it becomes more and more significant. The film is built on nuances. Strictly speaking, in the end it remains unclear: either Mesrin was really imbued with the ideas of European radical terrorists, or in his underground interviews with the French press he simply shocked the public with revolutionary statements in order to attract even more attention to himself as a pop star. Perhaps Mesrin himself did not understand how serious he was in his words and where he would be carried.

But, judging by the film, he really, as promised, could make contact with the Italian Red Brigades and Palestinian terrorists or create a French version of the Baader-Meinhof. And he would start maiming innocent people by blowing up French trains.

The film slightly exposes Mesrin's revolutionary nature. Every revolutionary is a comandante until he finds in his pocket not just big, but very big money. Having robbed another millionaire, Mesrin immediately rushes into the most shameless bourgeois revelry: he buys a BMW of the latest brand, takes his girlfriend to expensive hotels, gives her diamonds from Chopard.

But that doesn't hurt Mesrin's charm. The film is still for him. And when, in the finale, the special services illegally shoot him on the streets of Paris (with which the dilogy begins, so it's not a secret) - it slides into a melodrama. It is a pity for Mesrin, who nobly missed a truck at a traffic light, from which, as we already know, they will start firing at him from four machine guns at once. Pity the dog sitting on his girlfriend's lap. Bastards! The killers!!!

European society is clearly longing for the times when the bourgeoisie was blizzarding whoever could. When the police guarding the bourgeois were killed and blown up by big revolutionary personalities. In the case of al-Qaeda, terrorism is scary. In this - native - version, Mesrin's terrorism seems romantic to society. Modern Europe is carried away by the noble history of its own terrorism. After all, this is not slavish, not religious terrorism - terrorism at the behest of the soul, personal and free. Indeed, sometimes you really want to get a machine gun and shoot all these reptiles in a long line.

One hope: the crisis will make the consciousness of the world somewhat less romantic. In addition, it will not be easy for new potential amateur Euro-revolutionaries to save money or find a sponsor - for Kalashnikovs and plastics.