Shooting gangsters

Legendary Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger (JOHNNY DEPP) comforts girlfriend Billie Frechette (Oscar winner MARION COTILLARD) in the new action-thriller from filmmaker Michael Mann 'Public Enemies'. Photo / Supplied

If John Dillinger, one of America's most beloved crooks, were alive today, his infamous career as a notorious bank robber would have taken a different form.

Director Michael Mann has given it some thought: "He'd probably be a CEO or an investment banker with a Ponzi scheme. But he wouldn't have got caught."

Evidently, Mann is of the view that Dillinger was more Robin Hood than public enemy number one.

The four-time Oscar-nominated director responsible for The Insider, Collateral, Ali and Heat, to name a few, seems to have a fascination for flawed heroes and "good-guy" villains.

"The inner life of John Dillinger was so interesting. It wasn't the fact that he was a bandit or how good he was at it that was so exciting to me. What was exciting to me is, 'what did he think about himself? What did he think about life?"' explains Mann. "To me, his story is as American as apple pie. Dillinger was probably the best bank robber in American history. Even though it only lasted 13 months, it was such an intense life that he led. He lived maybe three or four lifetimes, all compressed into one. He is remembered as a celebrity outlaw, a populist hero."

The movie is set in the Great Depression where Americans in the early 1930s watched their life savings vanish and being jobless and hungry were the norm. As with all of Mann's films, Public Enemies has his signature stylised look and uncanny attention to detail. Of his authentic recreation of the era, he says, "I grew up in the neighbourhood of this film, in inner-city Chicago. I know it metaphorically and literally. I wanted the audience to feel not that [they were] looking at daily life in 1933, but that [they were] in this daily life in 1933. Intimate was the key word for me."

The stellar cast includes Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, who makes a stunning turn as Dillinger's girlfriend, Billie Frechette, complete with Chicago accent, and a stoic Christian Bale plays his nemesis, G-man Melvin Purvis. Billy Cruddup plays the vitriolic J. Edgar Hoover. Mann says of his cast, "I have such a high regard for actors. I never get jaded. I never cease to be amazed at the magic of that and the art of what they do."

Cotillard's follow-up to La Vie En Rose, is at times difficult to watch due to the material. "When we did the interrogation scene where she's being abused, it was hard even for me to watch the scene," says Mann. "She is a great, great, artist. When I met her she spoke broken English with a French accent. You'd never know it from watching the film now."

Says Cotillard, "I spent a lot of time in Chicago before we started shooting because it was impossible to make this American Midwestern accent perfect and I was so nervous about it and so focused about it. When you grew up as a French actress, you never think this kind of role would be possible."

From the seemingly impossible to landing the part of Johnny Depp's love interest is quite a feat. Like everyone who works with Depp, Cotillard was not immune to his charms. She gushes, "Johnny was so supportive and he reassured me when I was nervous about the accent. He took care of me. He's a very respectful man and he treats everybody the same way."

Cotillard says playing the female lead for Mann was a different experience than working for most directors. "In all of his films the women are not just a love interest. They are complete in a way that you know who they are. I think Michael has a huge respect for women and he wrote the part of Billie so beautifully."

The movie is a little slow at times, however Depp brings flesh and blood to Dillinger, making it completely watchable. Says Mann, "There is a deep current within Johnny. This is the kind of role I've wanted to see him do for a long, long time. He understood John Dillinger. I needed a real man to play him. Dillinger was a man, and so is Depp."

In summing up the mystique surrounding Dillinger, Mann, who clearly has a penchant for undermining authority, speaks admiringly of his anti-hero. "Dillinger wrote Henry Ford a letter which is framed in the Ford museum. He said, 'Dear Henry Ford. You make the best goddamn getaway car in America and I know about it more than anybody else. Bye bye. Yours truly, John Dillinger'."

LOWDOWN

Who: Michael Mann

Past credits: Starsky and Hutch (TV writer, 1975), The Last of the Mohicans (screenplay, 1992), Heat (writer, director, 1995), The Insider (writer, director, 1999), Ali (writer, director, 2001), The Aviator (producer, 2004) Collateral (director, producer, 2004), Miami Vice (2006),

Latest: Public Enemies , starring Johnny Depp, opens July 30