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Released by: Twilight Time
Released on: June, 2015.
Director: Francois Truffaut
Cast: Michel Bouquet, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Deneuve, Nelly Borgeaud
Year: 1969
Purchase From Screen Archives
The Movie:
Directed by Francois Truffaut in 1969, Mississippi Mermaid opens with a voice over telling us of those lonely souls who look for love in the personal ads section of their local newspaper. From here, we meet Louis Mahé (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a very well off man who runs a tobacco plantation on Reunion Island. He's been enjoying some correspondence with Julie Roussel and while hardly floored by her picture, he winds up agreeing to marry her regardless.
When she shows up on the island, she's not the woman he saw in the picture and the plain brunette he was expecting to see if in fact a stunning blonde (Catherine Deneuve). She insists that she is, in fact, Julie and puzzlingly enough, he not only goes along with this but soon puts a ring on her finger. Shortly after their wedding, however, 'Julie' takes off along with a sizeable amount of Louis' money, money that he never told Julie about while they were doing the letter writing thing. It's soon apparent that neither of these partners is who they seem… all of which happens after a woman named Berthe Roussel (Nelly Borgeaud) claiming to be Julie's sister shows up.
Very obviously inspired by classic American film noir, Mississippi Mermaid is a slick and engrossing film in which Truffaut shows excellent control over pacing and mood. Ripe with fantastic visuals and some clever transitions, there's a nice rhythm to the editing of the film. The compositions, colors and lighting keep things interesting to look at and do a fine job of enhancing the dark tone of the story. Obviously taking things to a pretty far extreme as far as the limits people will go to in order to find love, this is a film that does an interesting job of balancing obsession and romance, carefully treading that middle ground that most would see as balance in an effort to keep us guessing as to where it's all going to wind up once the film finishes.
The story is a good one, though not without its own set of problems. While you have to question some of the logic demonstrated by the characters that the picture focuses on, they're never so far out there that you're completely taken out of the film. The pace is deliberate and controlled so those expecting a film that rockets along may be disappointed but those who appreciate the way in which Truffaut was known to build suspense may feel quite differently (he demonstrates some interesting techniques here in that regard).
What really helps to set this film apart, however, are the performances from the two leads. While the supporting players all do very fine work, it's Belmondo and Deneuve. Bringing that sense of believable toughness mixed with a down to earth earnestness to the role, Belmondo does a great job as Louis. As the movie plays out, we want to know more about him. Deneuve, cast here as a fairly perfect femme fatale, is as mysterious and alluring as she is beautiful. They make an interesting pair and the camera loves them both.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Mississippi Mermaid arrives on Blu-ray from Twilight Time, framed in its proper 2.35.1 widescreen aspect ratio in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer on a 50GB disc. Some shots do look a little softer than others and for that reason detail isn't as consistently spot on as you might want, but texture and depth get a noticeable bump. Colors are reproduced very nicely, though there is some consistent fading noticeable throughout, while the black levels tend to be pretty strong. Skin tones look nice and lifelike and the picture is clean and clear and free of all but minor print damage. There are no issues with noise reduction or compression issues and this is quite a decent, if not amazing, looking transfer of a very nicely put together film.
The French language DTS-HD Mono track is also quite good. It has more depth than most single channel tracks do and the dialogue sounds quite natural and properly mixed in against the score. This isn't a particularly effects heavy track so Mono works just fine. The score has good range and presence to it and there are no problems with any hiss or distortion. Forced English subtitles are provided automatically during the French language sequences, and there's also the option to have English closed captioning provided over the English audio portions if you want too.
The main extra on the disc is an audio commentary with film historians Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman who previously got together for an interesting talk about Truffaut's Story Of Adele H.. This is, again, a nice look at the making of the feature that does a fine job of offering up some welcome biographical information about all the key players as well as some interesting critical observations. They cover the locations, the historical context of the movie and how it jives with a lot of the other films that Truffaut had a hand in putting together around this time in his career. It's well paced, well researched and pretty thorough.
Aside from that we get an Isolated Score Track in DTS-HD format, the film's original theatrical trailer, static menus and chapter selection. As always, Kirgo also contributes an essay contained in the insert booklet that is tucked away inside the Blu-ray case. Here she offers up a concise, well written history of the picture and some analysis of what makes it work with some focus on the performances.
The Final Word:
Mississippi Mermaid isn't likely to be the film that Truffaut is remembered for but it is a very fine picture. The film tells an interesting and engaging story and the performances are strong across the board, as are the visuals. Twilight Time's Blu-ray offers up a decent transfer, fine audio and an interesting commentary track as its main supplement.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
