Maelström
Tags: psychedelic, romantic

Plot synopsis:
The story is told by a fish (with the voice of Pierre Lebeau). In Quebec during the autumn of 1999, twenty-five-year-old Bibiane Champagne (Marie-Josée Croze), head of three clothing boutiques, is being crushed by the expectations put on her for being the daughter of a celebrity, Flo Fabert. She resorts to drugs and alcohol in an effort to cope, while trying in vain to keep her problems from her brother Philippe (Bobby Beshro) and a persistent magazine reporter (Marie-France Lambert). The early scenes of the film show her friends supporting her through her first abortion and her inability to function in her job.
One night, Bibiane fatally wounds a 53-year-old fishmonger, Annstein Karson, in a hit and run accident. Wracked by guilt, and wanting to erase the evidence, she drives her car into the river. She survives, and interprets her survival as a sign that she deserves to recover her life. The fishmonger's son Evian, a diver who was recently inspecting Manicouagan River, encounters Bibiane by surprise and she quickly poses as his late father's neighbour. Evian falls in love with her, and Bibiane confesses eventually that she is his father's killer.
She later helps him sort through Annstein's possessions, and in the final scene, Bibiane accompanies Evian to Lofoten to dispose of the ashes.

Review: There are opening scenes to movies, and then there's Maelstrom!
The tale is simple, easy to follow, but I won't give it away - the unusual coincidences and twists in this film should be experienced fresh.
However, the course of the story brings the viewer various emotions; frustration and disdain at a young woman engaging in questionable activities (not to mention the crime that she goes relatively unpunished for), humour in foreign situations (a heavy car, fisherman versions of justice), and finally happiness (but I won't say how).
Which gives the film a quirkiness that's refreshing,  given the sometimes dark and depressing subject matter.
Maelstrom is a unique blend of happenstance, a touch of magical realism and a cautionary tale wrapped in the stunning cinematography Andre Turpin.
The irony is this scene is handled deftly and tastefully by Director Denis Villeneuve.
This is a well crafted film whose visual elements carry the tale, (a lesson M.
Here is a tale as grave and dark, and yet as lovely, as Grimm's original plots used to be, with however, a very personal imagery and contemporary twist.
Fishes being cut in pieces by a fisherman tell this story about a young upper class women's life going from bad to worse.
Then, as the story turns, with odds only reality itself could invent, witty dialogs and situations light up the tale into a true bliss.
The whole movie is thoughtful, questioning to the viewer and articulate in its very own way..
Simply put, it is one of the most beautiful films I've seen.
Too often directors forget that film is meant to be a VISUAL medium, and bludgeon their audience with a 10 minute scene of actors blathering at each other.
An intelligent treatment of the human condition, a wry sense of humour, great acting performances, and an excellent visual style make Denis Villeneuve a director to keep track of, and this film a joy to watch..
The film opens with a large, visibly injured, and obviously fake fish talking directly to the audience.
The talking fish says that his life in nearly over, and he would like to tell a "pretty" story with his last breaths.
This is obviously not going to be your normal film.The woman is named Bibiane (Marie-Josée Croze), and she turns out to be the main character.
Not long into the film she is removed from her position in the family business, a chain of upscale clothing stores, by her brother (although at first I thought he was her estranged or ex-husband).Most reviews or plot summaries go into more detail about events that occur in the middle and end of the film, but I'll keep it to that.
I would classify the film as primarily a drama, since the laughs are mostly at surprising events rather than strictly funny ones, and because the film kept me feeling slightly uncomfortable throughout.Marie-Josée Croze is very good here.
The story and the direction, both by Denis Villeneuve, on the other hand, are somewhat suspect.
Now this could just be a mechanism to get you to think, and in the wake of Memento (which came out at about the same time as this film) one is becoming used to the idea of the film structure mirroring the main character's thought processes.
I'm not sure I completely buy this argument, but I'll give it a little leeway.This film won the best picture, direction, cinematography, screenplay, and actress awards in Canada at their equivalent of the Academy Awards, but it is only just now getting to the United States, where it is expected to play for a very short time.
Hypnotic, good story, but a little slow in places.
This is a somewhat 'arthouse' film with lots of symbolic metaphors intertwined into the story.
The story itself is not bad, it is focused around one main character and manages to sustain the interest of the viewer through some clever turns.
The filming, the imagery, are extremely well done at times, managing to convey perfectly a sense of isolation/dissociation.
Some scenes could have been put, like the fish in this movie, on the chopping block.
This is not a movie for the squeamish or for folks who need to understand everything...and frankly, I didn't see the point to one part of it...what the heck was that fish all about?
The movie would have been better with no narration, let alone narration from something horrible and divorced from reality.But there are a lot of great moments.
Dennis Villenueve's Maelstrom is filled with multiple levels of water imagery: a fish as narrator, a suicide attempt in a river, the main character falling in love with a frogman, and scenes of repeated cleansing by water.
Winner of five major Genie awards in 2001, Maelstrom is a playfully alive but dramatically intense look at the life a pleasure-seeking 25-year old boutique executive of (Marie Josee Croze) who runs into an emotional storm following an abortion and a fatal accident that she does not report.
Like many who exist solely for their own pleasure, she manages to avoid responsibility but ends up having to deal with the results and becomes transformed in the process.Pierre Lebeau narrates the film in a heavy voice as a fish awaiting decapitation.
The fish tells the story of Bibi and we first meet her at a medical clinic undergoing an abortion.
She is fired for incompetence by her brother and, after drinking heavily, is involved in a hit and run accident in which a Norwegian fish industry worker is killed.
Spiraling downward, she attempts suicide but survives and falls in love with the dead man's son Evian (Jean-Nicholas Verreault) after attending the father's funeral.
Maelstrom does not sound much like a romantic comedy but it is full of off-the-wall humor and suffers from an overabundance of cleverness.
The film does not progress in linear fashion and there are several shifts of time and perspective to keep the viewer on edge.
Philosophical, surreal, absurd, symbolic, all with a creative touch similar to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie, Maelstrom tells us that the secret of life isto be continued..
After an abortion (pro-life activists beware!), Bibi runs down an old man while driving drunk.
Marie-Josée Croze is excellent in her role.
The film starts promisingly, with the fish head narrator, but descends so quickly into arty pretentiousness that any goodwill is quickly squandered.
I'd seen "Possible Worlds" a few weekends before, and it was truly an excellent movie, no cliches...
It was a cross between a bad French comedy and a pretentious artsy movie.
True, it was sometimes funny, and sometimes powerful - but it just seemed like a bunch of references scattered on screen, with music, imagery and pause used not to built the story, but to shock through being "unexpected" and "French artsy".But it was worth  seeing.
French-Canadian  movies have a feeling of Nordic melancholy that can turn to the good or the bad.
One of the best french-canadian movie of this year.
Remarkable big screen debut by Jean-Nicholas Verreault and Croze in leading roles.
Unusual surprize movie at Toronto Film Festival 2000.
Life as told from a fish's mouth makes this psycho-drama rich with visual delight.
The lead actress, Marie-Josée Croze, is perfect in her role, I wouldn't want it any other way.
This is one of those films I wish I could have been creatively involved in in any way because just being a part of it is a special thing.
It reminded me a lot of Kieslowski's Blue, and also a little bit of Red, in the character interaction, the cinematography, the use of colors, and just the overall mood.
Perhaps my least favorite part of the entire movie comes at the ending on the boat, only because the song being played does not fit the mood at all, and changed my outlook entirely.
MAELSTROM labored far too hard be unconventional, yet Denis Villeneuve(director) did demonstrate the possibility for a very interesting film.
Guilt due to an abortion which is exacerbated by a hit and run incident communicates a compelling narrative, but why introduce...a talking fish???
MAELSTROM had a fine cast, but the script failed to blend the ham-fisted element of 'the fishy fable' with the story's inherent dramatic subject matter, and in the end, the film aborted.
The closest thing to a "Perfect Movie" I have ever seen.
Maelstrom is a beautiful film told in a unique way.
The director uses the unlikely narrator of a fish (with it's head perpetually about to/being cut off) telling the story of a beautiful woman who's life is a complete wreck.
Denis Villeneuve's weakest movie.a movie trying to display about sin and redemption.like all other 'guilty spoiled female protagonist' movies, she transformed into a new person.and then the funniest thing.our revenge seeking hero (who realized his enemy is a woman instead of a man) fall in love with her, have sex with her and that's the end of the film..
I expected much better after watching Prisoners from Villeneuve.
After watching the excellent movie "Prisoners" from 2013 from director Denis Villeneuve I decide to look up what else he made for movies.
Prisoners was exceptionally good so I thought his other work would be of the same level but with Maelström I am a bit disappointed.
The cast of Maelström is good, nothing bad at all to say about the actors.
Marie-Josée Croze gives a good performance, playing the woman that has big issues in her life.
The narrating voice from the fish played by Pierre Lebeau works perfectly well in the story.
I could understand Pierre Lebeau and Marie-Josée Croze very well but Jean-Nicolas Verreault and his accent from Quebec I couldn't understand a word of his mumbling.
Anyways, it doesn't matter to the story or movie, because I could just read the English subtitles, but Maelström is just an average movie to me..
Denis Villeneuve film I saw years ago.
Denis Villeneuve's sophomore effort may not be as rewarding as his later features and is unrefined in many aspects too but it is a bizarre piece of work that tackles the themes of guilt, grief, regret & atonement in its own wicked manner but what makes it worthy of a sit is the brilliant performance from its leading lady.Maelström tells the story of a young, depressed & alcoholic woman who is having a hard time living up to the expectations of being a celeb's daughter.
Yet to recover from an unexpected pregnancy that led her to have an abortion, she finds herself in another mess after being involved in a hit-n- run accident while drunk driving.Written & directed by Denis Villeneuve, the story is narrated by a fish awaiting decapitation on a butcher's block and that opening moment when the fish starts talking nearly made me turn it off because what the f*ck.
Fishes do play a symbolic role here but Villeneuve could've done without the voice-over because it adds nothing to the plot.The director's attempts to make it funny hits the right spot only on few occasions while falling flat other times.
How the story unfolds carries an experimental feel and camera is finely utilised from start to finish.
Other than the protagonist, there aren't any interesting characters in it but Marie- Josée Croze plays her part sincerely and her performance is this film's highlight.On an overall scale, Maelström inclines a little more towards the art-house section but it has plenty of moments that will keep the mainstream viewers around as well.
An early effort from the then-budding filmmaker trying to carve his own distinct style, Maelström is frustrating at times but it may still amuse some..
If you have read any summary for this film, either given by this site or other reviewers, then there you have it: you've seen the movie.
Do not waste your time on this mess, you can thank me by renting a better movie like Abre Los Ojos or Magnolia..
The ultimate fish story.
"Maelstrom" is all about Bibi (Croze) who has an abortion and then, traumatized and suffering pangs of guilt, she proceeds to perpetrate a series of felonies.
So goes the plot of this amateurish film which is narrated by a fish.
The upside of this subtitled French-Canadian film is good work by Croze and cast.
I saw this film at Sundance and it was the best film I saw there by far.Marie-Josée Croze is a French-speaking long-lost sexy little sister of Maura Tierney (for all you casting directors out there).
The first scene of the movie is likely to shock 95% of viewers, but if they can get past it this twisted caper is not only worth seeing at the theater/theatre/cinema, but a good candidate for DVD collections.
memorable Denis Villeneuve vision.
A creepy fish being chopped up by a bloody butcher tells the story of 25 year old Bibiane Champagne (Marie-Josée Croze).
She is struggling in her life and then kills fishmonger Annstein Karson in a hit and run accident.
She encounters Annstein's son Evian at the funeral home and pretends to be Annstein's neighbor.On the good side, the surrealism is memorable.
*** 1/2 Quirky Canadian Film.
There's not much you can say about a movie narrated by a bloody, dying fish.
Quirky and wry, this French-Canadian film tells the story of a young woman who is not having the best week: she's suffering with guilt over the abortion she's just had, her career as a boutique-chain owner is threatening to flush down the toilet, and she's just run over an innocent pedestrian with her car without stopping to see if he was alright.
The story tries for poignancy, but as it takes half the film's running time just to figure out what it's all about it fails to really make its mark.
What you are left with, though, is gorgeous cinematography of Montreal locations and an excellent lead performance by Marie-Josee Croze.
If you dislike fish, you had best not watch this film for it is decidedly fishy from beginning to end.
Let it be said, this film is never dull.Misfortune they say never comes singly as Bibiane ( Marie-Josee Croze) soon discovers.
In the depths of despair through most of the film, she finally falls in love with the son of the fisherman she accidentally kills.
But then there are many surprises in this film.
But there is an interesting twist to this later in the film.
Indeed the film is all twists and turns and convolutions together with lots of fish and fishy smells and water everywhere.
But after all this is a story taking place in Norway.If imagination is a measure of quality, this film is it!
Maelstrom is obviously a film with a unique vision, told by a dying fish.
We have an abortion, which will enrage some of the audience, but playing Good Morning Starshine next as she leaves sets a humourous, ironic tone.
Much of this tone prevails; while I was expecting something darker like Incendies, a colourful, unique tone runs throughout Maelstrom.
After learning she accidentally kills a man with a vehicle, she confides in a stranger who tells her what's done is done; later, the son of the man falls in love with her, and in a quirk of fate, he confides in the same stranger who tells her what's done is done.
This time the poor girl is Bibiane Champagne (Marie-Josée Croze), she's supposed to be daughter of some very important figure.
After a rough night at some club, while driving home with quite an excess of alcohol in her blood, half awake half asleep, she hits a fishmonger.
Few days later, the fishmonger she had hit before was found dead at home.
This whole story is brought to you by the strangest means: the mouth of a huge and heinous fish, in a table waiting to have its head cut.
Dennis uses a lot of bright colours, especially white and blue to contrast with the old and dragged voice of the dying fish.
Made in Québec, Maelström tells the story of Bibiane Champagne, a young entrepreneur stuck in a downward spiral leading to a suicide attempt and redemption through a relationship with a man whose father she hit and killed while drunk driving.Denis Villeneuve's film opens with his lead character undergoing an abortion.
We then see Bibiane giving a phone call in the elevator declaring: "It's settled." Showing up at work, she is fired by her business partner, her own brother, for bad management that cost the clothing company $200 000.
On her way home, she hits an old fishmonger crossing the street and drives on, leaving him half-conscious on the road.
The young woman survives and gets another chance at life.
When Bibiane goes to the funeral home where her victim's ashes are, she meets the fishmonger's son Evian and pretends to be a neighbour.
Love is kindled and Bibiane finally admits she is the murderer, asking Evian to kill her.
Evian is torn, but chooses to forgive her and allows Bibiane to find grace.Put into context, this is a surprising film.
We see Bibiane numerous times in the shower trying to get clean, but only reconciliation through the son leads her to freedom..
Maelstrom (2000): Dir: Denis Villeneuve / Cast: Marie-Josee Croze, Jean-Nicholas Verreault, Stephanie Morgenstern, John Dunn-Hill / Voice: Pierre Lebeau: Dark comic drama that is predictable but stylish.
The heroine's state of mind is in a whirlpool of burden due to alcohol and guilt after she hits someone while driving and doesn't realize it until the following day.
Narrated by a fish that is about to be slaughtered, the heroine too feels within the same state as she runs her car off a bridge.
Brilliantly shot with fable-like narrative style with director Denis Villeneuve with great use of dark humour.
Pierre Lebeau is the voice of the narrator fish whose fate is sealed and who has time for this last tale.