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Directed by Michael Mann Written by Ronan Bennett, Michael Mann, Ann Biderman (based on the book by Bryan Burrough) Genre Action-Thriller Tagline America's Most Wanted Theatrical Release USA/UK: 01/07/2009, France: 08/07/2009 DVD Release USA: ca. December 2009 Starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff, Lili Taylor, Channing Tatum, Emilie de Ravin |
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In the action-thriller Public Enemies, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard in the story of legendary Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger (Depp)—the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the number one target of J. Edgar Hoover’s fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale), and a folk hero to much of the downtrodden public.
No one could stop Dillinger and his gang. No jail could hold him. His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyone—from his girlfriend Billie Frechette (Cotillard) to an American public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression.
But while the adventures of Dillinger’s gang—later including the sociopathic Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) and Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi)—thrilled many, Hoover (Billy Crudup) hit on the idea of exploiting the outlaw’s capture as a way to elevate his Bureau of Investigation into the national police force that became the FBI. He made Dillinger America’s first Public Enemy Number One and sent in Purvis, the dashing “Clark Gable of the FBI.’’
However, Dillinger and his gang outwitted and outgunned Purvis’ men in wild chases and shootouts. Only after importing a crew of Western ex-lawmen (newly baptized as agents) and orchestrating epic betrayals—from the infamous “Lady in Red’’ to the Chicago crime boss Frank Nitti—were Purvis, the FBI and their new crew of gunfighters able to close in on Dillinger.
Marion Cotillard plays Billie Frechette.
• Filming Locations: Chicago and various places in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Florida (USA)
• Marion Cotillard previously starred with Billy Crudup in Big Fish. They have no scenes together in Public Enemies, though.
• As a result of the writers' strike, director Michael Mann was able to cast Johnny Depp and Marion Cotillard once their respective projects had been postponed. Depp was preparing to film Shantaram (2011) with Mira Nair while Cotillard was rehearsing for Rob Marshall's musical, Nine (2009).
• Leonardo DiCaprio was initially attached to star in a leading role when this project was put into development in 2004.
• Although Billie Frenchette was never given "third degree" interrogation by the FBI as shown in the movie, the FBI agents did in fact perform similar tactics on Helen Nelson (the wife of "Baby Face" Nelson), Alvin Karpis, and an Dillinger associate in Chicago named James Probasco. In the instance of Probasco, he ended up falling to his death from a upper-floor window. Offically, it is believed he committed suicide in order to avoid further interrogation. However, some historians believe that the FBI agents interrogating Probasco attempted to make him talk by hanging him out of a window and that the agents lost their grip on Probasco.
• Billie Frechette (real name Mary Evelyn Frechette) was actually married to one Welton Spark at the time of her relationship with Dillinger. She married Spark in July 1932. He was convicted shortly thereafter for mail theft and received a 15-year term in Leavenworth, with a transfer to Alcatraz in September 1934. Her divorce from Spark wasn't finalized until the early '40s. She later married a man named Wally Wilson, the name she took to the grave. Wilson died unexpectedly, cause unknown, date unknown. Billie married Art Tic in 1965, a state game warden and barber from Shawano, Wisconsin. She died January 13, 1969, of mouth cancer. Mysteriously, her grave marker lists her name as Evelyn Tic (apparently against her wishes) and has the incorrect date of death as 1970.
Michael Mann
When you see that kind of work, you recognize it for what it is: This is a brilliant, brilliant artist. Even in the smallest gesture or expression, you can tell that there is total truth in what she’s doing; she is completely committed to every single moment. It’s not performance, it’s not artifice. It’s beyond skill.Cotillard, speaking English with just a slight accent, is lovely and fine as the lady who wins the bad man's heart.
VarietyCotillard embodies the film's inner tensions and Mann's aesthetic: The role of Billie begins in the key of "cliche gun moll," but the actress has a way of toughening her up and keeping her honest.
Chicago TribuneOscar talk already has begun to swirl around Miss Cotilliard's performance, and her closing scene is the film's most poignant.
Washington TimesMann's focus extends to a love story, with Dillinger entranced by the Indian-American hat check girl Billie Frechette (another dazzling performance by La Vie En Rose's captivating Oscar winner, Marion Cotillard). Her final scene, an exchange with an FBI agent, produces a depth of emotion that's hard to match anywhere else in the film.
The Courier Mail (Australia)The girl who knocked his socks off was Billie Frechette, alluringly played by Oscar winner Marion Cotillard in her first role since Edith Piaf in the unforgettable La Vie en Rose.
The New York ObserverAs for Cotillard, she may be yet another second-fiddle love interest in a Michael Mann film, but at least her charm and steel give the role needed depth, especially with the love story growing in importance as the film reaches its conclusion.
ScreenDaily.comDillinger was a gentleman thug, loyal to his friends and to his hat-check girlfriend, Billie Frechette, played by Marion Cotillard with a combination of desperate hope and fear that is enormously appealing.
The New YorkerCotillard is vivid and lovely, and gets one very dramatic scene in an FBI office that just might make you gasp (I did), but the movie's not as interested in her; Billie is mostly a standard girlfriend role.
The Seattle TimesThe actor also has an intriguing chemistry with French Oscar winner Marion Cotillard as Billie Frechette, the initially reticent coat-check girl who becomes his dazzled lover. Cotillard has a fiery standout moment late in the film, as Billie is captured and brutally interrogated before Purvis intervenes.
Film Journal InternationalThe relationship between Dillinger and a hatcheck girl named Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard, holding her own in this man’s world) eats up considerable time, sometimes winningly, though both actors are better when they’re apart.
The New York Times
She’s a real product of this really tough period in American history. Out of the Depression came all of these people who struggled to live. Billie had no money, and she came from an Indian tribe, which, at the time, was not easy. By the time she came to Chicago and met Dillinger, she had already lived several lives—she had been to military boarding school, to learn military manners, to “get the Indian out.” She’s a mix of someone really sweet and tough.
In Michael Mann’s movies, women aren’t just there because he needs a love interest. In the movie, you feel for Billie, because you have the time to discover who she is, to see that she was really in love.
It [the accent] was the hardest thing, really, I’ve ever had to do. Even being old and depressed like Edith Piaf was much easier. The hardest thing was that I deeply knew that it wouldn’t be perfect and it’s – agh! It was something unbearable. I couldn’t speak French. No French. Even my French friends and my family when they called me, we would speak English.
I really had to get a Midwestern accent. I knew from the beginning that how hard I would work. It would never be a hundred percent perfect, and it’s kind of frustrating that I really wanted to do my best. Fortunately Billie had some French blood, even if she’s not supposed to have a French accent, but also in the ‘30s there were many accents, still many accents from Dutch and British. You can even hear in most of the movies of the ‘30s, you have different kinds of accents, so it’s not totally out of context and especially a flavor of French because she had some French blood. So I have to say that it was really, really hard for me to think about the language and then the accent and to, at the same time, let it go to be able to give flesh and blood to Billie Frechette.
He had that class. He didn’t know any better than robbing banks. He spent half of his life in jail and I think it was a big injustice that he spent so much time in jail. He was so charismatic and also it was a very tough time for America. It was the depression and all the people … they didn’t have any money, they didn’t know how to survive without any money. And suddenly that guy goes and takes the money where it is. He was not a murderer. He was just someone who tried to survive. I think that’s why he was so fascinating.
He’s [Johnny Depp] a very, very nice person. He was very nice to me because I was very stressed out. It was my first movie after two years. It was my first movie after ‘La vie en Rose’. It had been two years and I was very stressed out. I’m always very scared when I start a movie because I never know if I’m going to be able to do a good job or do a very bad job. He was very nice.
I think that you always learn something from working with good actors. I had seen a lot of his [Johhny Depp’s] movies before I worked with him. I think he’s an amazing actor because he can do so many different things and be authentic in each of those things. He’s a very - I think I always say funny guy, but funny guy means more weird. I should say fun guy. Yeah? He’s a fun guy. He really likes to have fun on set. When I say he’s a simple person it doesn’t mean like he’s…it means he’s really easy to talk with. He’s the same person with everybody which is an amazing quality when you have a special life like the life that he has. He’s a real gentle man. I didn’t know anything about him except his work. Most of the time I don’t expect things. I don’t project, like, ‘Oh, maybe he’ll be like this or like that.’ So it’s not about surprise. It’s just about discovering someone who’s a very nice person and a great actor.
by Maria
by Sara Amelia
