'Mississippi Mermaid,' New Wave homage to Hitchcock, plays at Northwest Film Forum

In the spring of 1962, the French New Wave filmmaker François Truffaut was preparing to direct the screen adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451," the story of a society that burns books and the rebels who secretly memorize banished texts, essentially becoming those books.

Ironically, Truffaut would soon be swallowed whole by a tome himself: the landmark "Hitchcock," a book-length interview conducted and edited by Truffaut, and inspired by his longtime admiration for Alfred Hitchcock. The work took years to complete, but when it was done, Truffaut, who began his career as a groundbreaking film critic, had helped illuminate Hitchcock's expressive achievements as a director beyond the latter's droll, public persona and technical genius.

In earlier writings, Truffaut described Hitchcock's perennial obsessions as an artist, among them a link between complicity and intimacy in relationships. As a filmmaker, however, Truffaut paid homage to them in a couple of late-'60s features based on stories by Cornell Woolrich: "The Bride Wore Black" and "Mississippi Mermaid." Beginning tonight, the latter plays for a week at Northwest Film Forum as part of a yearlong series focusing on movies released in 1969.

"Mississippi Mermaid" is Truffaut's personal exploration of Hitchcock's fascination with love, secrets and guilt. Jean-Paul Belmondo stars as Louis Mahé, heir to a tobacco fortune and isolated bachelor on a remote island called Reunion. Louis proposes marriage to Julie Roussel (Catherine Deneuve), whom he has only met through a newspaper ad. When she arrives, she looks nothing like the photograph she sent.

Still, Louis marries Julie and discovers too late she's a grifter who steals all his money. A gun-wielding Louis catches up with her and learns her real name is Marion. The money is gone, and the real Julie was killed by Marion's ex-boyfriend.

Here's where things get interesting. Louis' thoughts of revenge give way to heightened closeness with Marion and sexual obsession. The two become a more natural (even bickering) couple than Louis and "Julie" ever were, their shared silence over Marion's criminal behavior — compounded by Louis' own deadly action to stop a snooping detective — intensifying their bond.

In a way, Truffaut pushes the envelope of Hitchcock's "Suspicion" and "Notorious" when Marion — on the run with Louis — faces the prospect of having to change to stay in their relationship. Truffaut probes the dark waters of despair and acceptance between a man and a woman as profoundly as the master did, but through the lens of his own, somewhat more dispassionate, perspective. The result is a deeply noirish tale seen from a coolly revealing, intellectual distance.

At the time, "Mississippi Mermaid" was not a box-office success, but its reputation has grown. It stands as vital testimony to one filmmaker's deep regard for the legacy of another.

Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com