JACQUES MESRINE – The Death Instinct. Originally published in French as L’Instinct de Mort.  Filmed as  L’instinct de mort (released in English as Mesrine: Killer Instinct) is the first part of a 2008 French biographical crime film about Jacques Mesrine, a notorious real-life French gangster. Directed by Jean-François Richet and starring Vincent Cassel.

   Autobiography of a French bank robber.

   Mesrine lives for thrills. His favorite is the double bank robbery. You rob one bank, and when the cops are busy responding, you go down a couple blocks and rob another.

   When he’s out of the clink, he’s living high on the hog. Truffles and champagne, whores and heists.

   Ironically, with a sense of justice. He keeps his word.

   When he takes a whore for a wife, she can leave the life. She can trust him. When the pimps show up to reclaim their property, he slaughters them, burying their bodies in the park. He’s no use for pimps.

   He promises the warden he’ll escape by a certain date. He won’t disappoint.

   He tells his buddies, he’ll be back to free them. You can set your watch by it. Odds be damned.

   He only robs the rich and banks and corporations. Don’t be a hero, he’s only there for the money. But he’s only half a Robin Hood. He’ll keep the plunder and have a party.

   On the lam, he never lays low. He stays in Paris, robbing banks maskless.

   He’s clearly a psychopath. There’s no remorse. It’s all society’s fault. Everything he does.

   At the same time, you kinda root for the guy. He’s a manly Man. The ladies love him, and men like a man whose word is gold.

   The title’s wrong. He doesn’t want to die. He loves life. He loves it so much that he cannot bear to lose his soul to the doldrums, to the mind-numbing horseshit of stupid orders by the stupid tyrants of workaday life, school, and institutions.

   He despises arbitrary abuse of power by middle managers. He’s sick of sycophants and hypocrisy. He’d rather die on his feet than live on his hands and knees.

   And he does.

         —

   It’s a good read. He does a thrilling job detailing his exploits: the robberies, the murders, the prison escapes. It makes you a bit ill to keep such close company with a psychopath. But don’t screw him, he won’t screw you. I promise.