Mississippi Mermaid [DVD]

An interesting film, with a following of admirers; this François Truffaut film is full of strange twists that holds interest- film noir crossed with romance/mystery. Ultimately, the film is not satisfying as the love story is very difficult to accept. But be warned - this has not been remastered, and even though it bears the MGM logo, it is not an MGM film, and it should not have been released in this state - quality is no better than a VHS tape; in fact it looked like a pirate copy on my high end equipment. Image is neither sharp nor with sufficient contrast; colors are washed out. A sad state of affairs for MGM DVD - when compared to Warner Bros DVD MGM films in the unrestored Archive series.

"Julie, you are adorable," says Louis Mahe (Jean-Paul Belmondo) to his beautiful new mail-order bride, Julie Rousel (Catherine Deneuve). "Do you know what that means? `Adorable'. It means worthy of adoration." Louis is a wealthy tobacco grower and cigarette manufacturer on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. When Julie arrived on the island, she didn't look like the photograph she had sent him when she agreed to be his wife. She says she was timid and decided to send the photograph of her sister. Louis is enchanted by her beauty and understands her caution. They marry, and Louis becomes a husband deeply happy. He tells her she is worthy of adoration just a day or two after he arranges to change his personal and business accounts into joint accounts. That evening, Julie has disappeared, cleaning out both accounts. Louis goes to France, has a breakdown, and then by chance sees Julie in a newscast about a new nightclub and the women there who are hostesses. Louis learns she is really a woman named Marion Vergano. Marion's history would lead only the most obsessed of men to think a happy ending could be in the cards. Most of the movie places us in France after Louis has found her and accepted her as Marion Vergano

Mississippi Mermaid, written and directed by Francois Truffaut, is a movie of Louis' obsession, of sexual psychosis, of parasitic selfishness, of stolen identity and of rat poison, with a lot of self-revealing (some of it even true) dialogue thrown in. As much as I think comparing one director to another is usually pointless, in this case Truffaut may have watched Vertigo, Psycho and Marnie once too often. Still, murder at the top of the stairs, the star power of Deneuve and Belmondo and some eccentric passing opinions (Louis thinks Johnny Guitar is "a love story, with lots of feeling in it."), all handled with Truffaut's characteristic confidence isn't something to pass by. The downside is that Mississippi Mermaid, despite all of its advantages, at times veers too close to melodramatic parody.

"You mustn't cry, my dear. It's your happiness I want, not your tears."

"I'm learning what love is, Louis. It's painful. It hurts me." It sounds better in French, but the meaning is just as soppy.

Truffaut adapted his movie from the pulp mystery novel, Waltz into Darkness, by Cornell Woolrich writing as William Irish. The movie didn't do too well the first time out, but then underwent a rediscovery of sorts. Unfortunately, that meant articles by people who teach film studies at universities. One such person wrote, "[Mississippi Mermaid] remains a fascinating exploration of the major themes essayed by movie melodramas of betrayal - a sort of distillation of the amoral nucleus of Double Indemnity and the wilder settings of Key Largo." Distillation of the amoral nucleus? I don't even know what an amoral nucleus is. The salient point, for me, is that films such as Double Indemnity and Key Largo are above all else tightly told stories. I think Truffaut with Mississippi Mermaid started with a nice, nasty, obsessional pulp tale, but then tried to do too much with it.

The DVD is not anamorphic. The transfer is nothing special. There are no extras.

"Mississippi Mermaid" (1969), is a French film, written and directed by famed director Francois Truffaut(The Francois Truffaut Collection - 6 Disc Box Set (Exclusive to Amazon.co.uk) [DVD] [1959]). It is an odd little melodrama, a crime/drama/romance, said to have been influenced by the famous British-American film director Alfred Hitchcock, that has the privilege of presenting two of the greatest stars of contemporary French cinema, Jean Paul Belmondo (Breathless [DVD] [1959]) and Catherine Deneuve(The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg [DVD] [1964]; Belle de Jour - 40th Anniversary [1967] [DVD]) in its leading roles. It is based on the novel Waltz into Darkness by well-known American mystery/thriller author Cornell Woolrich, writing as William Irish, and was dedicated to famed French film director Jean Renoir. It's not considered one of Truffaut's greatest pictures, but it has its moments.

The picture is set in the little-known French island of Reunion, near Madagascar, off Africa. Belmondo, who looks very uncomfortable in suit and tie, plays Louis Mahe, a sweet but slightly naïve, successful businessman who owns tobacco fields and a cigar factory. He is awaiting, when the picture opens, Julie Roussel as a mail order bride, whom he knows only from her letters. When she arrives, aboard the ship "Mississippi Mermaid," she arrives in the person of the stunning Deneuve, and is much more beautiful, and quite different, than he expected. His life thereafter will take quite a few unexpected turns, most of them for the worst.

"Mississippi Mermaid" gives us perhaps the best look we will ever get at the island of Reunion. We also get to see some of southern France, the Riviera, Paris, and snowbound Switzerland. It is a treat to look at the two stars in their gorgeous young primes, and their acting, as well as that of the rest of the cast, is quite acceptable. Deneuve was less cold, and more sexy, certainly more skanky, than her usual persona. Belmondo, once freed of his earlier Reunion-bound persona, is able to loosen up and inhabit the emotions his character develops, as the pair establish a more reality-based relationship. Not the greatest French movie by a long shot, more a footnote curiosity, but worth seeing for fans of director or stars.