22 Bullets
22 Bullets (French: L'Immortel) is a 2010 French action crime film directed by Richard Berry.[1] Starring Jean Reno in the lead role, it depicts the story of Charly Matteï, a former gangster who has retired from organized crime and now lives a peaceful family life until he survives a brutal assassination attempt involving 22 bullets.[1] The narrative centers on themes of betrayal, revenge, and redemption within the Marseille underworld, loosely inspired by real events from the life of local mobster Jacky Imbert, who endured a similar shooting in 1977 and died in 2019.[2] The film opens with Matteï enjoying three years of tranquility with his wife and two young children after leaving behind his violent past as a mafia enforcer.[1] On a winter morning in Marseille's Old Port, he is ambushed in a parking garage by hitmen who fire 22 bullets into him, leaving him for dead as part of a larger gangland execution that claims three other lives.[1] Against all odds, Matteï survives the attack, which paralyzes his arm, and flees the city while the police dismiss the case as a closed matter.[2] Haunted by loss, he returns to protect his daughter and systematically hunts down the perpetrators, uncovering treachery from a former childhood friend.[1][3] Adapted from the 2007 novel L'Immortel by Franz-Olivier Giesbert, the screenplay draws from Imbert's experiences during the 1970s French Connection-era gang wars in Marseille, though it fictionalizes many elements for dramatic effect.[1] Produced by EuropaCorp under producer Pierre-Ange Le Pogam with a budget of €22 million, principal photography took place over eight weeks in Marseille, Avignon, and Paris starting in February 2009.[4] The cast includes Kad Merad as police inspector Tony Zacchia, Jean-Pierre Darroussin as lawyer Martin Beaudinard, and Marina Foïs as Matteï's wife Marie Goldman, with a score composed by Klaus Badelt.[1] Released theatrically in France on 24 March 2010 by EuropaCorp Distribution, 22 Bullets attracted 1,127,458 admissions in its home market over its run.[5] It grossed approximately $21.7 million worldwide, a modest performance relative to its budget.[6] Critics offered mixed responses, with praise for Reno's stoic portrayal and the film's atmospheric depiction of Marseille but criticism for its derivative revenge plot echoing American gangster classics like The Godfather.[3][4] The movie holds a 42% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 12 reviews, reflecting its polarizing reception among audiences and reviewers.[7]Background
Literary origins
Franz-Olivier Giesbert, a prominent French journalist and author known for his work in political commentary and biographies, published the novel L'Immortel in 2007 through Éditions Flammarion.[1] With a career spanning decades at major publications such as Le Figaro and Le Point, where he served as editor-in-chief, Giesbert drew on his investigative background to craft narratives that explore complex figures in French society.[8] The novel presents a biographical account of a Corsican gangster's life within the Marseille underworld, blending factual elements with fictional storytelling derived from extensive interviews with the real-life inspiration, Jacky Imbert, known as "Jacky le Mat."[9] This approach allows Giesbert to fictionalize key events while grounding them in authentic details of organized crime dynamics.[10] At its core, L'Immortel follows the protagonist Charly Garlaban, a major figure in the milieu marseillais, who miraculously survives being shot 22 times in a parking lot ambush and embarks on a relentless quest for revenge against his betrayers.[11] The narrative evokes a modern-day Count of Monte Cristo, emphasizing themes of survival, retribution, and the blurred lines between loyalty and treachery in criminal circles, all inspired by Imbert's own 1977 assassination attempt.[10]Real-life inspiration
Jacques Imbert, known by the nicknames Jacky le Mat ("Jacky the Madman") and later L'Immortel ("The Immortal"), was a notorious figure in the French underworld, born on December 30, 1929, in Toulouse to an aeronautics worker. He rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s as a key player in Marseille's organized crime scene, where he controlled significant portions of the city's prostitution, drug trafficking, and protection rackets alongside associates like Gaëtan "Tany" Zampa and Francis Vanverberghe. Imbert's criminal activities were deeply intertwined with the Corsican mafia's influence in Marseille, part of the broader French Connection heroin trade networks that extended from Corsica to the United States, earning him a dedicated police file under grand banditisme case number 909-68 for his suspected involvement in multiple murders and extortion schemes.[2][12] On February 1, 1977, Imbert survived a brazen assassination attempt orchestrated by rivals from the Zampa gang, ambushed in the parking lot of his residence, Les Trois Caravelles, in Cassis, near Marseille, by three masked assailants armed with .45-caliber weapons. He was shot 22 times at close range, with bullets riddling his chest, abdomen, and legs; surgeons removed all 22 projectiles during emergency operations, but the attack left his right arm permanently paralyzed. Despite the severity of his injuries, Imbert made an astonishing recovery over several months, defying medical expectations and solidifying his legendary status in the criminal world. In retaliation, he is believed to have ordered the killings of at least 11 Zampa associates over the following years, escalating the bloody turf wars in Marseille's underworld.[2][12] In his later years, Imbert largely withdrew from active crime, reinventing himself as a businessman with investments in horse racing stables and the entertainment industry, including close ties to actor Alain Delon, while cultivating connections in political circles. He faced legal troubles in 2003 when arrested for his alleged role in a cigarette smuggling operation tied to the Russian mafia, resulting in a four-year sentence in 2004 that was overturned on appeal in 2005. Imbert spent his final decades living quietly between properties in southern France, the Caribbean, and Italy, occasionally granting interviews that reflected on his past without remorse. He died on November 11, 2019, at the age of 89 in a hospital in Aix-en-Provence, surrounded by family.[2][12]Production
Development and pre-production
Director Richard Berry acquired the film rights to Franz-Olivier Giesbert's novel L'Immortel, intending to adapt its core story of survival and retribution into a cinematic narrative.[1] Berry co-wrote the screenplay with Éric Assous, following initial drafts developed in collaboration with Mathieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière; the script emphasized polished dialogue to heighten dramatic tension.[1] Key creative decisions during pre-production involved reorienting the story toward themes of revenge, family reconciliation, and personal redemption, while preserving the novel's central motif of a mafia figure's improbable survival after a brutal assassination attempt; this shift aimed to blend high-stakes action with emotional depth, drawing loosely from the real 1977 Marseille shooting that inspired Giesbert's work.[1] The production secured a budget of approximately €20 million, financed primarily through EuropaCorp—led by Luc Besson and Pierre-Ange Le Pogam—and TF1 Films Production, with additional co-production support including €3.5 million in investments to ensure scalability for international markets.[13] Pre-production included early casting deliberations, where Berry prioritized actors with whom he had prior professional rapport, such as Jean Reno for the lead role of Charly Matteï, to capture authentic emotional layers in the revenge-driven protagonist. Location scouting focused on southern France, particularly Marseille and its surrounding areas like Cassis, to authentically recreate the novel's gritty Provençal underworld and enhance the film's regional verisimilitude.[1][13]Filming
Principal photography for 22 Bullets (original French title: L'Immortel) began on 23 February 2009 and ran through April 2009, with the majority of scenes shot on location in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France.[14] The production team spent over a year on research in the city prior to filming, ensuring a deep immersion into its cultural and historical context to capture the essence of the criminal underworld.[15] To enhance authenticity, director Richard Berry opted for real Marseille sites, including the Vieux-Port parking garage on Cours d'Estienne d'Orves—mirroring the real-life 1977 ambush that inspired the story—and the Frioul islands, along with urban neighborhoods like Quartier du Panier and port areas that depicted the gritty, multicultural fabric of the city's underworld.[15][16] Local actors were cast to provide genuine Provençal accents, further grounding the narrative in Marseille's social reality while avoiding stereotypical portrayals.[1] Filming extended to Avignon, Vaucluse, France, in early April 2009 for supplementary scenes, followed by eight weeks of shooting in Paris to complete interior and additional exterior sequences.[14] The action choreography emphasized realism, with star Jean Reno undergoing physical training to perform many of his own stunts in the ambush and revenge sequences, shot using handheld cameras and a 45-degree shutter angle to convey raw intensity without excessive stylization.[1] Challenges during production included navigating Marseille's complex image as a mafia hub, with the team conducting discreet research to balance factual inspiration against cinematic demands.[15]Narrative and cast
Plot summary
Charly Matteï, a former mafia boss in Marseille, has retired from his criminal life and spent the past three years living peacefully with his wife and two young children.[17] One winter morning in the Old Port parking garage, Charly is ambushed by a team of hitmen who shoot him 22 times at point-blank range and leave him for dead.[17][4] Against all odds, Charly survives the attack, though he sustains severe nerve damage to his right arm, forcing him to adapt and use his left hand for the violence ahead.[4][18] Determined to uncover the truth, Charly embarks on a methodical path of revenge, first targeting the low-level hitmen involved in the ambush, executing them in calculated strikes such as a brutal confrontation during a restaurant birthday celebration.[7] Parallel to Charly's vendetta, police captain Marie Goldman leads the official investigation into the shooting, motivated by her own unresolved grief over her husband's murder, which she suspects ties into the same Marseille underworld networks.[19][4] As Charly delves deeper, he discovers that the orchestration of the hit traces back to his childhood friend and former associate, Tony Zacchia, who has risen to lead the organization and views Charly's retirement as a lingering threat from their shared past.[17] Charly's pursuit intensifies when Tony's men kidnap his son to draw him out, forcing Charly into moral dilemmas about balancing retribution with family protection and questioning the cost of his violent return.[17][20] Goldman's probe reveals potential connections between Tony's operations and her husband's killing, leading her to pursue both the gang and the vigilante Charly, creating overlapping tensions in their parallel hunts.[19][4] The story builds to a climactic confrontation where Charly rescues his son, eliminates the remaining betrayers including a final showdown with Tony, and resolves the web of loyalties and deceptions that shattered his retirement.[21][17] In the aftermath, Charly finds a path to reconciliation, safeguarding his surviving family and embracing a renewed sense of peace away from the criminal world.Cast and characters
The principal cast of 22 Bullets (original French title: L'Immortel) features Jean Reno in the lead role of Charly Matteï, a retired mafia boss who miraculously survives being shot 22 times and embarks on a path of retribution. Reno, known for his commanding presence in action films such as Léon: The Professional, was selected by director Richard Berry for his ability to convey deep humanity and emotional layers, drawing on their longstanding professional relationship to portray Matteï's evolution from a vulnerable survivor to a determined avenger.[1][4] Key supporting roles include Kad Merad as Tony Zacchia, Matteï's treacherous childhood friend and rival who drives much of the central conflict through his duplicitous ambition. Merad, celebrated for comedic roles in films like Welcome to the Sticks, was cast to highlight the character's unpredictable charisma and underlying menace, creating dynamic tension with Reno's stoic lead.[1][4] Marina Foïs portrays Marie Goldman, a determined police detective investigating the violence while grappling with personal loss, adding a layer of institutional pursuit to the narrative's personal vendettas; Foïs was chosen for her versatility in bringing authenticity to complex, resilient female characters.[1][4] Jean-Pierre Darroussin plays Martin Beaudinard, Matteï's loyal lawyer and brother-in-law, whose divided allegiances between family ties and professional ethics underscore the story's themes of betrayal and redemption; Darroussin, a frequent Berry collaborator, was selected for his skill in embodying moral ambiguity.[1][4] Richard Berry, the film's director, also appears as Aurelio Rampoli, a shadowy gangster figure whose presence amplifies the underworld intrigue, chosen to infuse the ensemble with an insider's authenticity.[1]| Actor | Character | Role Description |
|---|---|---|
| Jean Reno | Charly Matteï | Retired mobster turned avenger, central protagonist whose survival fuels the revenge arc. |
| Kad Merad | Tony Zacchia | Charismatic betrayer and childhood friend, antagonist driving the core rivalry. |
| Marina Foïs | Marie Goldman | Tenacious police detective pursuing justice amid personal stakes. |
| Jean-Pierre Darroussin | Martin Beaudinard | Lawyer navigating loyalty and law in the escalating conflict. |
| Richard Berry | Aurelio Rampoli | Enigmatic gangster contributing to the criminal network's dynamics. |
| JoeyStarr | Le Pistachier | Ruthless hitman enforcing the antagonists' will. |
| Joséphine Berry | Eva Matteï | Matteï's daughter, representing his familial motivations. |