Une sirene a Paris

"I had in mind some characters immune to the feeling of love, but the essential trigger was the flood of 2016 in Paris, during which fish and ducks washed up on the banks of the Seine. The landscape seemed to me to be magnified, a bit like after a snowstorm, both dangerous and poetic: the city was going to be a character in its own right. And when a catfish was found, I felt like turning it into a mermaid. I imagined that she would be the last of the mermaids and that my hero would be a singer and the last of the surprised ones. I had some very strong images in my head, so I immediately felt like writing an old 1950s comedy, romantic and offbeat like a Capra film with a mermaid. The dichotomy even at the heart of the title Une sirène à Paris seemed romantic to me. " - Mathias Malzieu

For his first live-action film, Mathias Malzieu adapts his successful novel, which won the Babelio Imaginaire 2019 prize. Released on March 11th, the film had not had the chance to meet its audience because of the closure of all cinemas in France. Its cinema release on June 22nd gave it a second chance to meet its audience. Having been unable to discover it in a press screening, it was with a certain pleasure at the reopening of my favourite cinema, the Gaumont Disney Village cinema, that I was able to discover it in excellent conditions.

A Mermaid in Paris is a fantastic tale set in a realistic universe in which a mermaid, following the flood of the Seine, runs aground on a bank. Her presence will not only cause the death of several people but also give hope to Gaspard whose father has been running a cabaret barge for many years. By mixing different genres and giving an important place to music, Mathias Malzieu not only delivers us an original film but above all demonstrates once again his storytelling skills. Far from wanting to offer us a film following a classical scheme, he mixes musical comedy, fantasy film, drama and by some scenes animated films. The whole is perfectly mixed and can be watched with real pleasure. Of course, we still prefer his previous film Jack and the Mechanics of the Heart (2013) but by moving away from animated films and offering a fantastic film with an original tone, Mathias Malzieu shows that he is a dreamer who is as passionate about music as he is about cinema and his new film finds the perfect rhythm to conquer viewers.

One will appreciate the care given to the numerous musical numbers as much as his casting in which the duo composed by Nicolas Duvauchelle and Marilyn Lima works perfectly. Admittedly the ending is a little too fast and would have deserved a better treatment. We still remember the one in Ron Howard Spash's film (1984) with Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. In the same way and in the current context, the scene in which Milena (Romane Bohringer) throws her mask on the floor is shocking, especially as it seems to become a bad habit of many Parisians. Apart from this scene, A Mermaid in Paris deserves to be discovered in the cinema and we can only salute the care given to certain relaxing scenes, as we can imagine on a perfectly mastered storyboard.

While French cinema is anchored in predefined formulas and lacks more and more magic and too often resembles a marketing product, Une sirène à Paris is well worth the detour and we can only encourage you to discover it at the cinema.

Une sirène à Paris
Directed by Mathias Malzieu
Produced by Sébastien Delloye, Grégoire Melin
Written by Mathias Malzieu and Stéphane Landowski
Starring Nicolas Duvauchelle, Marilyn Lima, Rossy de Palma
Music by Mathias Malzieu, Dionysos and Olivier Daviaud
Cinematography : Virginie Saint-Martin
Edited by : Thibault Hague
Stobryboarder : Eric Gandois
Production : Overdrive Productions ; Kinology and Wonder Films
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing France (France)
Release date : Marc 11, 2020 (France), June 22, 2020 (France)
Running time : 102mns

Seen on July 1, 2020 at Gaumont Disney Village, Room 4 place A21

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