Sunday, July 20, 2014

Dvd/150: LA SIRENE DU MISSISSIPPI / MISSISSIPPI MERMAID (Francois Truffaut, 1969)

Based on a Cornell Woolrich novel, LA SIRENE DU MISSISSIPPI is an oddity, exploring love and desire through the medium of a Hitchcockian thriller that now looks like a clunky tv-movie.


Louis (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who owns a tobacco factory on an Asian island, proposes to a girl he has been writing to via a lonely hearts column.  When Julie (Catherine Deneuve) arrives, she explains that she looks nothing like the photograph he has because she was nervous of her looks - Deneuve???? - so she sent a friend's photo instead.


They marry but Julie vanishes soon after with nearly all his money.  Louis pursues her to France where Julie admits her real name is Marion and she was forced into the subterfuge by her criminal lover who has left her penniless.


When Louis kills the detective tracking Marion, they go on the run - but can Marion really be trusted?

Shelf or charity shop?  La boutique de charitie...

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