MISSISSIPPI MERMAID/LA SIRENE DE MISSISSIPPI
France, 1969, 123 minutes, Colour.
Jean- Paul Belmondo, Catharine Deneuve, Nelly Borgeaud, Michel Bouquet.
Directed by François Truffaut.
Mississippi Mermaid is based on a story by William Irish – and later adapted for the Angelina Jolie- Antonio Banderas melodrama, Original Sin . It is directed by François Truffaut who had emerged with the French New Wave in the late 1950s with The 400 Blows and developed a strong reputation with such films as Shoot the Pianist and Jules and Jim. He was to continue until the 1980s and his untimely death. He is also remembered for his book of interviews with Alfred Hitchcock and his appearance as the scientist in Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Jean- Paul Belmondo portrays a factory owner on the island of Reunion. The film gives a history of the island, its inhabitants, its role in the French Revolution and of the families settled their. Belmondo has negotiated for a bride from France but did not tell her that he was the owner of a factory. He is surprised when she seems not to have arrived on the ship but is suddenly there in the presence of Catharine Deneuve.
After they marry, they live a set life but the wife seems unsettled and disappears. She has robbed him of his fortune and gone back to France with a man who controlled her to take the place of the intended bride and has taken the money.
The factory owner pursues her to France, after the dead woman’s sister has commissioned a private detective to find her. When Belmondo finds her, he becomes infatuated even to killing the detective so that they would not be exposed. He returns to Reunion, sells his factory, comes back to France and the couple flee to the countryside, eventually into the winter hut where Deneuve begins to poison Belmondo because she is restless and wants a life of luxury – he accuses her, accepts what is happening, but she then saves him as they flee through the snow.
1. Audience interest in the work of François Truffaut, of Jean- Paul Belmondo, of Catharine Deneuve – and their working together? A film of the 1960s? The stories of William Irish/Cornell Woolrich?
2. The island of Reunion, its history, locations, exotic, the families, wealth, the heritage of the French Revolution, banks and factories? The beauty of the landscapes? The musical score? France, Provence, Antibes, the countryside, the winter snow?
3. The title, the ship with Julie coming to Reunion?
4. Louis, Jean- Paul Belmondo and his charming and athletic presence, his family, the heritage, the factory, his hopes, the letters to France, the prospective marriage? His partner at the factory? His finances? The boat, Julie not seeming to arrive, Catharine Deneuve waiting, the story about the photo, his deception that he was the owner of the factory?
5. The marriage, the ceremony, life in Reunion, the mansion, the tour of the factory, Julie’s absences, the relationship, her spending money, the signatures on the accounts?
6. Julie, her character, departure, taking all the money?
7. The repercussions, Louis’ friend, taking the money, going to France?
8. Julie’s sister, the truth, the murder? Hiring the detective? His pursuit, the irony of his success, and Louis killing him to silence him?
9. Louis the search, France, the effect, Antibes and the club, the hotel, her life, following her, scaling the wall, accosting her?
10. The true story, Richard, the blackmail, the plan and the deception, the murder?
11. Louis in love with her, affection to love, their life together, the money, her restlessness, wanting luxury, the scenes in the club, his going to Reunion, getting the money, bringing it back to her?
12. Living together, leaving Antibes, the police, Lyon, in the hut, her attempts to poison him, his understanding the truth, accepting it – her hitting the coffee cup – and their fleeing into the snow?
