Mississippi Mermaid

Genre tizzy pays homage to Cornell Woolrich---William Irish technicolor noir.

Very good individual performances by Belmondo and Deneuve despite only a middling of chemistry together and a pastiche plot put together by Truffaut

This movie feels a bit like 'Truffaut doing Hitchcock', which has its good points and bad points. On the positive side, it may surprise you with you with its twists and turns. Knowing absolutely nothing about it, I was intrigued by the first part, when a tobacco plantation owner on Reunion Island (Jean-Paul Belmondo) meets his fiancée (Catherine Deneuve) who he met and fell in love with through the mail, soon realizing that not is all as it seems. However, on the negative side (and without giving away the plot), as the movie went on, the actions of the characters (and Belmondo in particular) were not always believable. Even if you factor in love and physical attraction driving people to extremes, he's remarkably blasé about missing 27 million francs. It kept my interest and had some great shots by Truffaut, including a fantastic scene between Belmondo and Deneuve at a fireplace, but ends up 'good' and 'not great' as a result.

La pareja francesa por excelencia Belmondo y Denueve en esta pelicula de Truffaut, un hombre bajo el encanto de una mujer hasta en las extremas circunstancias y un gran final.

Perhaps that's the film explaining why the French are not very fond of Catherine Deneuve, who has played a highly vicious and chilling woman.

At first, Truffaut's 8th film released just after his famed interview book with Hitchcock seems to show how well he learned the lessons of the master. In fact, this almost seems like a pastiche of Hitch's themes, musical cues, and shots (e.g., Suspicion, Spellbound). However, the film is dedicated to Renoir (Arizona Jim gets a nod) and this foreshadows a detour away from Hitch and into Amour Fou territory (i.e., La Chienne). Deneuve is great as the femme fatale, a mail-order bride who may not be what she appears to be; this part allows her to demonstrate her chilliness (I always found her difficult to connect with). Belmondo is fine as the tobacco plantation owner (from Reunion Island). Unfortunately, the film tends to break down as it goes on, spending too much time on the relationship and leaving the thriller elements aside until it is almost too late to resurrect them. I looked at my watch. Perhaps a little tightening would have made this more Hitchcockian, but then it would be less Truffautian, so what's the point?

A cult movie: Deneuve and Belmondo are cast opposite what they used to be cast at the time. She is a bad girl, he is a naive nice man. Deneuve was never more beautiful than in this movie, you can see that Truffaut was in love with her. The story is much more complicated than it would seem at first sight. A master piece.

This was Francois Truffaut's take on the same material that was later filmed as Original Sin with Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas, but this more subdued version was a bit more watchable in my estimation, even if I wasn't ever 100% sold on the idea that these two were so in love that they would continue to sacrifice for one another, but maybe I just need to give it another peep and see if it grows on me. Definitely worth a rental.

"Tu es si belle que te regarder est une souffrance... -"Hier encore vous disiez que c'Ã (C)tait une joie". -"C'est une joie... et une souffrance"

Franchement surpris, non pas seulement de l'incroyable performance de Belmondo, lui qui m'avait âprement déçu dans quelques autres films, non pas seulement non plus de celle de Deneuve, qui incarne à elle seule une telle vivacité, une telle douleur que ça en devient tout simplement beaucoup trop éblouissant pour nos petits yeux, mais bien par la fluidité du scénario.<br/><br/>A priori, l'histoire m'apparaissait banale, voire même un peu cliché, quand bien même Truffaut était parvenu à introduire une vraie énigme sans avoir recours à la musique suspecte ou aux sourcils froncés pour faire comprendre au spectateur que quelque chose ne fonctionnait pas.<br/><br/>Plus le film avance, plus la simplicité même du scénario se métamorphose en une complication extrême, qui met en jeu les normes sociales et la définition même de l'amour passionnel.