Mississippi Mermaid

R

1969

1h 50m

Mystery & Thriller

Crime

Drama

List

82%

Tomatometer

17 Reviews

73%

Audience Score

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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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

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

Wendy Shreve

Featuring Film

Mississippi Mermaid will keep you guessing about who genuinely casts the spell.

Jul 24, 2020

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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

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François Truffaut

Director

Jean-Paul Belmondo

Louis Mahé

Catherine Deneuve

Julie Roussel

Nelly Borgeaud

Berthe

Martine Ferrière

Landlady

Marcel Berbert

Jardine

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93%

75%

Dillinger

96%

87%

The French Connection

TRAILER

for The French Connection

53%

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77%

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92%

71%

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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: French (Canada)
Release Date (Streaming): May 23, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $26.9K
Runtime: 1h 50m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: 35mm