Sirens in the Seine FLAPPERS & PHILOSOPHERS

"Miss Mermaid" Pauline Brunner and Marion Verlé (2026)

These days, it’s nice to watch movies with water or ice, and the theater is cooler, even if you have to leave the house to get there. I saw the poster for 'Miss Mermaid' and fell in love with the idea of riding a bike with a mermaid tail. Who hasn’t fallen in love with a mermaid at some point, whether she's real or not?

THE DREAM, THE SEA

Something similar happened to Fanny (Aloïse Sauvage), a girl in love with the idea of mermaiding—swimming with a synthetic mermaid tail—and becoming a professional mermaid. She had this epiphany after falling into the harbor water during the town festival, right after drunkenly ruining her friend’s bachelorette party—the very same party where she had just told her friends she was getting a divorce. If you didn’t grow up in a small town, you might find this scene hard to believe, but if you did, you know these things happen. They happen a lot. That’s how Miss Mermaid begins, and up to this point, without even knowing what’s going to happen next, the story already has me completely hooked.

WE NEVER STOP BEING TEENAGERS

Everyone knows that moving back into your parents' house makes you act a bit like a teenager, and Fanny—even though she moves back in with her parents, who happen to raise chickens—doesn't tell them about her aspirations. In the meantime, she is going through a divorce, drowning in bank debt, and working night shifts at a shrimp factory. The problem isn't that you are crazy; the key is sharing your world with people who are just as crazy as you are. At the factory, she shares her dream every day with Paupiette (Annie Mercier), a 70-year-old woman craving freedom who has worked there for 43 years and can't afford to retire. Joining them is Tintin (Thomas VDB), a sea nomad who lives on a boat—a political activist who couldn't care less about anything and only thinks about the next port of call.

FANNY IS "NINI"

Fanny transforms into Nini the Mermaid and gives her absolute all for her dream. She buys a silicone mermaid tail, makeup, and accessories; she goes to the municipal pool with it; she sneakily uses a water tank at the factory; she takes a second job cleaning vacation rentals for tourists (To pay off her debts? No, to buy more mermaid gear); and she studies videos of Anémone (Alison Wheeler), a mermaid influencer through whom she discovers an entire community of real, professional mermaids who do world tours and gather in Bilbao for a competition.

- “Madame, you cannot swim without a swim cap."

Nini has just arrived from the changing rooms to the edge of the pool, dragging her backside across the floor. It’s the debut day for her tail; she’s wearing waterproof makeup and has dyed her hair pink. She wears two tight braids across her forehead—it's a subtle look, but it feels like a threat.

- “Yes, of course" -Nini says as she dives into the water. She doesn't care about anything—the cap, the people, the lifeguard. She only has one vision: to be a professional mermaid.

It is incredibly satisfying to watch how Nini, instead of letting every setback discourage her, channels it into a burst of rage that pushes her closer and closer to her goal. Nini isn't trapped in her life as long as she can swim with her tail, and nobody can stop her.

THE ART DIRECTION IS NOT SUBTLE

The art direction is far from subtle. It kicks off with the town festival, the real-world "Foire aux Harengs" of Lieurey (Normandy)—a local celebration held every November 11th. In the movie, a woman heavily made up in purple tones, looking a bit like a mermaid herself, hands out fish. The predominant color palette consists of pastels arranged in rainbow patterns, and as we near the end of the story, everything surrounding the protagonist becomes iridescent, especially her bedroom. She gradually adopts the mermaid character as her own personality; besides changing her hair color, she dresses in pastel colors—mostly pink, but also blue, yellow, and violet. She is building a world tailored to herself. The kitchen in Paupiette’s house features a pastel blue and yellow palette typical of the '60s and '70s. This is where the two friends share their world, and it couldn't be a less marine environment, despite the house being located right by the sea.

INSTAGRAM ERA

At times during the film, the screen shifts to a smartphone format, and we see social media feeds, reels, tutorials, and our protagonists trying to make viral videos. It doesn't escape our notice that cats also make an appearance as characters in the movie—the most mainstream and viral living beings on the internet, without even doing anything special.

DISNEY, IS THAT YOU?

Are there homages to Disney? I identified at least three:

* In one scene on the boat on the way to Bilbao, Nini combs her hair with a fork, exactly like Ariel does in The Little Mermaid (Disney Animation, 1989).

* They also carry two chickens on the boat. In the movie Vaiana (Moana, Disney Animation, 2016), there is a chicken on her boat that is constantly getting into trouble.

* Nini shares Ariel’s visual color code (purple top, green tail, though Nini’s has a gradient effect), while Paupiette bears a physical resemblance to Ursula—plus-size, older, with short white hair. In The Little Mermaid, Ariel asks Ursula for help and gets tricked, whereas in this case, Paupiette genuinely helps Nini without deceiving her.

MERMAIDS, MERMEN, AND PEOPLE

And I don’t want to say anything else because I’ve already shared too many spoilers. To wrap up, I’ll just tell you that there is a scene in an aquarium featuring mermaids, mermen, and people dressed as marine animals that is pure cinema. We witness this party from the other side of the glass, from inside the water, and they become the fish. That’s when you realize that everyone truly has a place, even those with unconventional dreams. We just have to swim hard, sometimes against the current, to find it.

With everything I’ve told you, don’t you feel like trying on a mermaid tail right now and going for a refreshing swim, just like I do?

INCREDIBLE AND BASED ON A TRUE STORY

Alexia Colibert, "la sirène de Fécamp" (the mermaid of Fécamp), lived Nini's real-life story: "It was either this, or jumping off the cliff". She discovered mermaiding during a complicated divorce while trapped in the routine of a port town, Fécamp (Normandy). Just like in the movie, she started in secret. The film's directors are Pauline Brunner and Marion Verlé. Pauline is Alexia's cousin and was fascinated by how Alexia decided to break away from established social norms, so she chose to document it. Brunner and Verlé filmed Alexia’s training sessions and daily routine as she prepared for the mermaid competition in Vannes. From there, they decided to make the leap into fiction with Miss Mermaid, released on July 1, 2026. Alexia appears in the film inspired by her life, making a cameo in the final scenes as “Yaya mermaid,” crossing paths with the protagonist.