FANTASIA 2020: A Mermaid in Paris
fantasia 2020Coming off his animated feature Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, Director, Mathias Malzieu ventures boldly into the world of live-action filmmaking with A Mermaid in Paris which is streaming as part of the 2020 Fantasia International Film Festival. Following a young man named Victor (Alexis Michalik) who meets an injured mermaid named Lula (Marilyn Lima) and cares for her despite the danger she might pose, Mathias Malzieu immediately challenges himself with a story of ambition and complex emotions, all of which he pulls off quite well.
The immediate comparison most will point to with A Mermaid in Paris will inevitably be Guillermo del Toro's 2017 Best Picture Winning The Shape of Water. Where it should be noted that the specifics of the two films are different, and that A Mermaid in Paris successfully stands out as its own entity, the comparison rings true in multiple ways. Not only is Malzieu able to bring these two characters together in a completely natural and effective way but the visual design is very reminiscent of that in The Shape of Water. Although the exact colour pallete is different, A Mermaid in Paris shows a clear control when building its world using specific colours to give the version of Paris featured in the film a melancholic storybook feeling that enhances the effects of the life brought by the characters. The film also smartly uses practical effects wherever possible which is an important tool used to ground the project. Despite the concept of someone finding a mermaid being fantastical, the emotions featured throughout the film are hauntingly real. For them to connect properly, the film needed to bring audiences into this world to understand these characters on a personal level. The screenplay from Stéphane Landowski and Mathias Malzieu help tremendously as does the choice to use practical effects to not only give the film a grounded appearance, but to also avoid any possible bad visual effects that could take audiences out of the movie which is incredibly smart.
Another factor of why the film connects so well are the characters within it. From the very start of the film, Victor is an undeniably likable protagonist with a charm to him that is rarely achieved to such degree. Lula is also an important individual to connect with and the choice to highlight the scars within her personality helps ground a character that otherwise would have been hard to understand. Lula, due to the power that she holds in which her singing kills anyone she is around for an extended amount of time, leaves her feeling lonely and haunted. The entire film, by the end, attempts to leave a similar haunting effect on the audience and overall comes really close to fully achieving it. You want the best for these characters and it becomes quickly apparent that, despite their love being genuine, there is no possibility for a completely happy ending which is a painful understanding both the audience and characters are forced to accept.
The one thing holding not just the ending, but the entire film back, is the editing. Not only does the entire film feel like it could have a greater sense of urgency and could have cut 15-20 minutes of its runtime easily, but the ending drags itself out way too far. With multiple fades to black, which feel like a beautifully poetic place to end only for the film to then resume, the potential heartbreaking ending turns into a bloated series of sequences that drastically lessens what should be a powerful final blow.
Had the editing been cleaner and the film overall moved with greater urgency, A Mermaid in Paris really could have been something special and one of the more emotionally rewarding films of 2020. It is a film that seemingly has all the individual pieces needed to rise to the next level but sadly the screenplay ends up dropping the ball right before sliding into home base. Still, the film is rewarding and is undeniably an impressive outing for Mathias Malzieu who continues to prove himself as a director with a fascinating unique flair for visual storytelling that easily could translate into a masterpiece before too long.
