Of all the star directors of my youth, Truffaut has probably fallen the furthest in my personal pantheon. I continue to be disappointed, to not understand what all the fuss is about, nor even what I liked about him way back when. Mississippi Mermaid is a good example. It's a good little film, but is is far from great. The biggest lack for me is character development. Truffaut finds ways (mostly visual clues and dialogue) to announce the plot twists and what the characters are thinking and feeling, but it is an intellectual approach; it isn't transmitted through the actors. Catherine Deneuve is at the height of her unrivaled beauty, but she plays her character with such glacial coolness that we never see the emotion that is stated through her dialogue. Jean-Paul Belmondo and his character fare a bit better, especially in the first half of the film. But we don't feel the struggle in the second part that he is supposedly going through that transforms his feelings for her and convinces him to throw everything away for her. We might understand him if he were 22 or 24, but he is supposed to be 38 and a man of substance in the film; his behavior is not credible, and hers in just inscrutable. Despite these fine actors and a star director, it's the writer - again Truffaut - who lets us down with an overly intellectual approach.
Review of Mississippi Mermaid
