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Mississippi Mermaid

Play trailer Poster for Mississippi Mermaid R 1969 1h 50m Mystery & Thriller Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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83% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 73% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Lonely on the island of Réunion, tobacco planter Louis Mahe (Jean-Paul Belmondo) decides to wed a mail-order bride. Although the woman who arrives off the ship, Julie Roussel (Catherine Deneuve), looks nothing like her picture, she's still gorgeous. Their marriage seems to be going fine until Julie empties his bank accounts and disappears. This should be the end of Louis' obsession -- but then he spots Julie in the south of France and falls under her spell once more.
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Mississippi Mermaid

Critics Reviews

View All (18) Critics Reviews
Richard Brody New Yorker The redemptive power of love is joined with a stifled guffaw of irony. Apr 13, 2015 Full Review Keith Uhlich Time Out Rated: 3/5 Nov 17, 2011 Full Review Ty Burr Boston Globe Mississippi is a film noir shot in dazzling color, a Hitchcock movie with the soul of a Jean Renoir drama. Rated: 3/4 Apr 29, 2010 Full Review Eddie Harrison film-authority.com …Truffaut’s brilliant study of self-destructive passion in Mississippi Mermaid captures the best and the worst of love in this couple caught up in continual revoltion… Rated: 5/5 Jul 29, 2024 Full Review Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid The lush cinematography does a fine job of capturing the couple's beauty, while their passion is elusive. Rated: 3.5/4 Apr 22, 2023 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Deneuve expertly keeps us guessing as to whether this woman truly cares for her husband or only cares in murdering him. Rated: 3/4 Feb 18, 2023 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Very good individual performances by Belmondo and Deneuve despite only a middling of chemistry together and a pastiche plot put together by Truffaut Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member 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. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member 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. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member 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. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member 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? Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member 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. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Mississippi Mermaid

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Movie Info

Synopsis Lonely on the island of Réunion, tobacco planter Louis Mahe (Jean-Paul Belmondo) decides to wed a mail-order bride. Although the woman who arrives off the ship, Julie Roussel (Catherine Deneuve), looks nothing like her picture, she's still gorgeous. Their marriage seems to be going fine until Julie empties his bank accounts and disappears. This should be the end of Louis' obsession -- but then he spots Julie in the south of France and falls under her spell once more.
Director
François Truffaut
Producer
Marcel Berbert
Screenwriter
François Truffaut, François Truffaut, Cornell Woolrich
Production Co
Lopert Pictures Corporation
Rating
R
Genre
Mystery & Thriller, Crime, Drama
Original Language
Canadian French
Release Date (Streaming)
May 23, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$26.9K
Runtime
1h 50m
Sound Mix
Mono
Aspect Ratio
35mm
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