Review of Mississippi Mermaid (1969) by Terri H — 16 Jan 2009
Francois Truffaut's strange take on pulp noir, with plantation owner Belmondo shipping in a mail order bride and getting Catherine Deneuve... who looks nothing like the girl he's ordered, but (not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, presumably) marries her anyway, only to realise -- shock! horror! -- she's out to rip him off for everything he owns.
But this is merely a springboard for an odyssey of obsessive and often illogical love, as Belmondo tracks her down. What follows is weird, wonderful, wildly overlong and unwieldy. The lead performances are terrific, and Truffaut is, as always, playful with genre conventions, but he kind of gets stuck on the one track here, and the result is about 20 minutes too long.
This review of Mississippi Mermaid (1969) was written by Terri H on 16 Jan 2009.
Mississippi Mermaid has generally received positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
