Mississippi Mermaid (1969)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Taken for a Bride

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Truffaut's follow-up to The Bride Wore Black is based on another Cornell Woolrich story, this time the novel Waltz Into Darkness. Mississippi Mermaid begins as a lurid crime story. Louis (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is the wealthy owner of a tobacco plantation on a small island in the Indian Ocean. He goes to pick up his bride-to-be, a woman with whom he has only conversed in letters. He's surprised to find the beautiful Julie (Catherine Deneuve), who looks nothing like the photograph he was sent. But he buys her story and they marry anyway. Of course, she is a criminal, and one day he finds her gone, along with most of his fortune. When Louis tracks her down, she confesses that she really did fall in love with him, and he's won over. They embark upon a life as gypsies, until the past catches up to them and an act of violence changes everything. Despite another chilling score by Bernard Herrmann, Truffaut doesn't focus on suspense. He's more interested in the obsessions and delusions of the two lovers, the teeter-tottering of truth and lies, both from Julie (real name Marion) to Louis and from Louis to himself. Their path is inevitably doomed, but they both head down it anyway. Is it for love? Or is it for an illusion? Either way, the lush cinematography does a fine job of capturing the couple's beauty, while their passion is elusive.

Kino Lorber released the movie on a fine-looking Blu-ray for 2023, including a commentary track by film historians Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman, and a bunch of trailers, many of them for Truffaut films.