Love, death, and fish all mingle in this offbeat comedy-drama from award-winning Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. Bibiane Champagne (Marie-Josee Croze) is the daughter of a well-known fashion designer who dabbles in modeling when she's not busy helping to run the family business with her brother Phillippe (Bobby Beshro). But Bibiane has not been especially happy in her work lately, owing in part to an unexpected pregnancy that led her to have an abortion. Bibiane tries drowning her sorrows
in alcohol and drugs, and late one night, after several drinks too many, she hits a jaywalker while driving home. The pedestrian staggers away after the accident, and the next morning, Bibiane remembers what happened and is frightened at the prospect that she may have killed someone. When Bibiane reads a newspaper account the next day of a seafood delivery man who died in his kitchen after being struck by a hit-and-run driver, she's convinced she was responsible for the crime. Guiltily attending the man's funeral, Bibiane strikes up a conversation with his son, Evian (Jean-Nicholas Verreault), and soon the two have become romantically involved, with Bibiane unable to tell Evian her secret. Maelstrom was shown in competition at both the Montreal World Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival in 2000. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
A young woman's life unravels when she has an abortion, then a few days later hits a pedestrian with her car and flees in a panic. MAELSTROM is not for anyone seeking a traditional narrative: it's an arty, surrealistic, impressionistic portrait of guilt, narrated by a fish telling the story with his last breath as he
waits to be gutted and turned into seafood.
May 8, 2011
Greg S
Super Reviewer
Maelström is the brilliantly told story of a young woman dealing with the chaos that ensues from the hit-and-run she committs.
I especially enjoyed how it was sometimes shot at different angles with the camera shakiness on top of that to give it a touch of confusion.
Like the snowball effect, each event of the film
brings about another and so on. It seems everything has a meaning and everything is linked to something else, somehow.
I also liked the idea of a fish on the brink of death (about to be slaughtered actually) telling the story. It was quirky yet added a tinge of originality.
Marie-Josée Croze was, as always, superb. As for Jean-Nicolas Verreault, I thought he was overshadowed by Croze and should've had more screen time. He's an okay actor anyhow!
I suggest you rent this when you feel like watching drama, art house, foreign, international, what have you. Otherwise you might not appreciate this as much as you should.
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