ADDITION: Twilight Time - Region FREE - Blu-ray June 15': Mississippi Mermaid is another problematic title in regards to bringing it to digital - reminding me of Twilight Time's transfer of Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black. The Twilight Time 1080P transfer is blameless in that it is dual-layered with a max'ed out bitrate and seems to have been at the mercy of the source provided. Historically, they never seem to do manipulations and looking positively, it does look significantly superior to the SD renderings of more than a decade ago. The grain textures are somewhat inconsistent (but not as clunky as we have seen) but over-all, in-motion, the image quality is certainly better than just 'watchable'. Colors, in particular, regain some normalcy. It is heavy with very little depth. There is, mostly, much more information in the frame of the 1080P - notable on the side edges. Perhaps this is the best HD video we will see for this title?

Twilight Time utilize an authentic DTS-HD Master mono track in the original French at 1063 kbps. No aggressive effects per-se but the score by Antoine Duhamel (Godard's Weekend) carries some weight not heard in my European SD. Unfortunately, it has burned-in yellow font subtitles (that I assume were on the D1 source provided.) Like all Twilight Time Blu-ray it is region FREE.

We get a new audio commentary with film historians Nick Redman + Julie Kirgo. Julie takes the lead but I find this an unusual film for discussion although the educated pair do impart some interesting value. Twilight Time add their usual isolated score track, there is a theatrical trailer and some liner notes with essay by Julie Kirgo. This release is limited to 3,000 units.

This is not my favorite Truffaut although I did appreciate the film more via the 1080P presentation, along with the commentary than ever before. I still find it an oddball, but there are some features about it that are intriguing in a filmmaking sense. For those keen, or who have not seen Mississippi Mermaid, this is the best way for your home theater consumption.

ON THE DVD (2003): Overall both look very weak. The anamorphic PAL edition appears to have better image quality. It is marginally sharper with superior contrast levels. Skin tones in the non-16X9 NTSC look a little unnatural and orange to me... and that edition is slightly cropped. It seems the Region 1 may have some contrast boosting. It is very difficult to know for sure, but I lean toward the PAL edition and its anamorphicity. All else is the same (extras, audio, menu).