Back To Index Mississippi Mermaid
 Barnes & Noble The wickedly pretty Mississippi Mermaid is one of François Truffauts more overlooked films. The twisting plot involves Louis Mahé (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a tobacco plantation owner on a far-off tropical isle who places an ad in Paris for a mail-order bride. She arrives in the Yves St. Laurent resplendence of Julie Roussel (Catherine Deneuve). After exchanging vows, evidence piles up that suggests Julie is not really Julie. By the time the proof comes, shes already siphoned money from the couples joint bank account. He puts a detective on the trail, and while faking a cure in an asylum, sees TV footage of her in a new, Playboyesque club and pursues her with a homicidal vengeance. But the sight of her, the revelation of her real name (Marion, also a 60s Hitchcock staple), and her recounting of her shady, juvenile delinquent past makes him love her all the more. The two continue to bicker, fight, make up, and hide out from the cops, as they discover that this love, a "joy and misery," is the real thing. At first glance, Mississippi Mermaid seems very indebted to Marnie, Alfred Hitchcocks own tale of a misidentified blonde tormenting an obsessed guy until both experience -- in the words of Hitchcock -- a "degradation of love." The new Mississippi Mermaid DVD goes well beyond this by adding 13 minutes to a previous home video cut. This restoration can only be called a revelation. The two brand-new scenes soften the characters -- one is a monologue from Louis to "Julie" about her beauty that would seem ridiculous in less caring hands than Truffauts. The other "new" scene involves a suave gag where Marion phonographically etches an earnest confession of desire to Louis only to have it run over by a passing truck. Both additions are invaluable as they humanize Deneuves character -- an archetype whose malice fit Hitchcocks fashionable icy blonde persona all too well. Mississippi Mermaid supplies a lovely, rich example of how François Truffaut can meld both sides of a filmmakers brain: in this case, a cool, studied suspense technique with his own classically romantic sincerity. Eddy Crouse Interested in the song lyrics? - Check out themostlyrics.com! Looking For A DVD? - Check out dvd-a-rama.com! |
|
|||||||
| �2006 CD-A-RAMA.com. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy • Contact Us |
||||||||
