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Mississippi Mermaid on DVD (1969)

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Average rating: 58%
5820102
3.0
from 361 members
 
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Deneuve, Nelly Borgeaud, Martine Ferriere, Marcel Berbert
Director: Francois Truffaut
Studio: MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 118 mins
Certificate: 12
Genres: Drama
Languages: English
Released: 04/08/2003

Brief synopsis of Mississippi Mermaid

A wealthy businessman living on the island of La Reunion orders a bride by mail and receives--instead of his intended--a beautiful, mysterious woman with a flimsy excuse. He marries the imposter anyway, but his dream life is shattered when the woman absconds with his bank account and leads him into a murky drama of missing persons and murder.
Ultimately, this strange tale transforms into a surprisingly powerful adult love story, in which both participants find themselves able to forgive each other's failings and transgressions -- allowing them to move forward without regret, or undue fear of what the future might hold. In the film's finale, Truffaut returns to the same barren, snowbound cabin that he used to such great effect in Shoot the Piano Player, only this time the results are substantially less fatalistic.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 2 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Catherine Deneuve arrives on the island of Réunion to marry plantation owner Jean-Paul Belmondo. She plays a mail-order bride in this adaptation of a Cornell Woolrich novel, transformed by Truffaut into a lavish and exotic study of obsessive love (what the French call l'amour fou). Things turn decidedly darker when the tropics give way to winter in the French Alps and romance turns to murder. This was the director's first major flop, only released abroad in a slightly cut and badly dubbed version that rendered the dialogue utterly risible. The stars have an undeniable glamour, and the first half-hour is superb. However, most audiences will find the whole thing — especially Belmondo's wimpy behaviour — pretty silly.

Rating of 1 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

Oddly obsessive romantic murder mystery: the hero continues to love the girl who tries to kill him, and at the end they are still together. Interesting when it is not uncomfortable.

Time Out

Belmondo, owner of a cigarette factory on the African island of Réunion, advertises for a wife, gets Deneuve (who... Read more on www.timeout.com

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 3 starsReally worth watching, I think

Michael McGhie from Bury, Lancashire. , 02/10/2004

This is generally considered one of Francois Truffaut's less good films but I thought it entertaining enough; certainly not arty or exclusive. The leads are good and Catherine Deneuve even goes topless in one scene if that's of any interest! Seriously, it is an involving story of businessman Jean-Paul Belmondo on the island of Reunion and his acquisition of a wife. Needless to say there are many complications and changes of location before true love, rather touchingly, wins the day.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsMissippi Mermaid

TheWormWithAPerm from Essex , 26/08/2005

Absolutely stunning film - truly intriguing, heartbreakingly frustrating, maddeningly beautiful. There was something about this film which really set it apart.

The acting is unfaultable - frighteningly true to life - while a haunted feel seems to seep over the whole production. The viewer is constantly caught off-guard with the endless twists in the tale, leaving the impression that this was, however apparently similar to others, a truly original piece of work.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsAmazing juxtaposing

PeterHarris from London [Highly rated reviewer] , 08/04/2008

Truffaut artfully explores the tensions and animosities inherent in juxtaposing two people from different places who haven't previously met each other, on an island in the Indian Ocean, and then in France metropolitaine.

The juxtapositioning really is good, some of the best juxtapositionalising I've seen in French cinema, and I've seen quite a bit e.g. the juxtaposing of a young boy and an old city in 'Les Quatre Cents Coups', or the famous juxtaposing of a man (Jean-Paul Belmondo) with a woman (Jean Seberg) in 'A Bout de Souffle' (though recent critics have suggested this is probably more a case of a man simply being next to a woman, rather than juxtaposed with her, the debate rages!...;-0).

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsDon't miss Mississippi Mermaid

A customer from Wales, UK , 11/07/2006

If you are a Catherine Deneuve fan, don't miss this film. Deneuve is the ultimate femme fatale in a tale of truely insane love. Deneuve is pure class in this. If you like French Art House, this is a must see.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 4 starsMissippi Mermaid

TheWormWithAPerm from Essex , 26/08/2005

Absolutely stunning film - truly intriguing, heartbreakingly frustrating, maddeningly beautiful. There was something about this film which really set it apart.

The acting is unfaultable - frighteningly true to life - while a haunted feel seems to seep over the whole production. The viewer is constantly caught off-guard with the endless twists in the tale, leaving the impression that this was, however apparently similar to others, a truly original piece of work.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsReally worth watching, I think

Michael McGhie from Bury, Lancashire. , 02/10/2004

This is generally considered one of Francois Truffaut's less good films but I thought it entertaining enough; certainly not arty or exclusive. The leads are good and Catherine Deneuve even goes topless in one scene if that's of any interest! Seriously, it is an involving story of businessman Jean-Paul Belmondo on the island of Reunion and his acquisition of a wife. Needless to say there are many complications and changes of location before true love, rather touchingly, wins the day.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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