‘Carlos,” Olivier Assayas’ 330-minute, three-part biopic about the infamous 1970s terrorist, is no documentary.
Indeed, the opening credits warn that “because of controversial gray areas in Carlos’ life, the film must be viewed as fiction.”
Given that, “Carlos” is exciting entertainment, even if its subject’s two-decade reign of terror is reprehensible.
He was born in 1949 in Venezuela as Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, and took Carlos as his nom de guerre. The press added “the Jackal” after a copy of the novel “The Day of the Jackal” was found amid his belongings.
He’s portrayed by Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez, who — voguing in a black beret and shades — captures Carlos’ misplaced charisma, which for a time made him a media superstar.
His fortunes diminished in the 1980s, which he spent as a terrorist for hire, willing to work with whichever country would have him. Ill health further added to his decline.
Since 1997, Carlos has been in a Parisian prison, serving a life sentence for the murder of two French agents and an alleged informer.
Frenchman Assayas’ film involves dozens of characters and locations, as well as eight languages. It was shot with hand-held cameras and makes use of dizzying jump cuts.
The centerpiece is the audacious 1975 raid — commissioned by Saddam Hussein — on an OPEC conference in Vienna.
Much of the film’s second part is taken up by this incident, in which Carlos and his cohorts kidnapped several oil ministers and kept them aboard a jetliner that bounced from Algiers to Baghdad to Tripoli as he tried to find refuge.
In a moment of comic relief — is it fact or fiction? — one of the ministers asks for and receives Carlos’ autograph.
In a stark reminder of how security has changed since 9/11, Carlos’ gang is easily able to bring hand-held rocket launchers into an airport and use them in an attempt to destroy an Israeli jetliner on the runway.
Carlos was a womanizer — the list of females he seduced and discarded is almost as long as that of his terror victims. Dark-haired Nora von Waldstatten is a seductive standout as a German revolutionary who became his first wife.
She eventually left him, taking their young daughter. In the 1980s he married a second time.
Any epic this long must naturally have its ups and downs. The OPEC raid in Part 2 is the high point; it could even be a film of its own.
Part 3 is a letdown as it portrays an aging, ailing terrorist whose most activedays are behind him. Still, Ramirez’s performance is never less than compelling, and Assayas’ direction and eye for period detail are strong throughout.
“Carlos” opens today at two theaters. The IFC Center is showing the full version, and the Lincoln Plaza is unreeling a 169-minute edition. I recommend the complete cut if time and stamina permit.