The Bride Wore Black

source: The Bride Wore Black

Trailer—La mariée était en noir

La mariée était en noir

Interesting take on Hitchcock territory, although it lacks the suspense and capacity to involve the viewer as The Master's films always did. The true wonder here is Jeanne Moreau, as cool as a cucumber, going about her revenge business with clockwork accuracy, exuding class and talent equivalent to five of today's stars. Bernard Herrman's passionate score seems slightly out of place against the film's emotional detachment, and most of the time things fall just a little bit too perfectly in place, but overall, this is a satisfying film, of interest to genre fans.

The Bride Wore Black is, for my money, Truffaut's best film! Jeanne Moreau is pitch perfect as the shattered bride, who will stop at nothing to punish the men responsible for her husband's death. She is fully authentic, as she tracks down and dispenses justice to those responsible, with a cold and icy single mindedness, that would make a shark shudder!! This is a must see for all Truffaut fans, one that still remains vivid to me! 9 out of 10!

A mysterious woman (Jeanne Moreau) is going around France killing men...but only certain men. She blames them for the death of husband and wants to make them pay. This is based on an excellent novel by Cornell Woolrich. The novel is quick, exciting and always keeps you guessing. Sadly this movie does none of that. Truffaut is obviously trying to imitate Hitchcock here. He uses the kind of story Hitchcock would use and even uses Bernard Hermann (who composed most of Hitch's films) as a composer. As a result it SOUNDS like a Hitchcock film but it certainly doesn't play like one. The story is slow with endless dialogue passages. The plot moves in jerks--not smoothly. Moreau--a beautiful and wonderful actress--looks horrible here and gives a rare bad performance. In fact EVERYONE looks ugly and there are ill-conceived changes made from the story (although I realize some were needed). I was basically bored but the score kept me watching. Slow and uninvolving--a real disappointment.

Once l'd read somewhere that Truffaut gave a interview where he explained how remarkable were Hitch's works, curiously in that time the master of the suspence for many reasons wasn't had a propper respect from american critics, after that point everyone stayed astonished over such Truffaut's valuable comments, loud and clear, therefore all critics change of mindset about Hitch, in this picture was well designed around such bright fingerprints of the master, even an older Jeanne Moreau she was in great shape to the role of a revengeful woman, the plot is plenty acceptable in many ways, l would like to say that Truffaut wasn't my favorite director neither, however it's hard don't recognize a fine picture like that over such suspicious of the great Alfred Hitchcock!! Resume: First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8

While I felt pretty lukewarm about some of the more famous Truffaut's films (such as Jules and Jim and The 400 Blows), this film grabbed my attention and delivered great performances and exceptional writing throughout. The film begins with a mysterious women arriving at a large party. She ingratiates herself to a gentleman there and walks out onto the apartment's balcony. Suddenly, she kills him and quietly vanishes from the party! Then, as the film unfolds she continues to dispatch specific men throughout the countryside. Why she is doing this is unclear until the latter part of the movie and I liked that because the viewer was both amazed at her inventiveness and viciousness yet perplexed as to WHY. The "why" I will leave to you to discover when you see the movie yourself--but do see it if at all possible. Although not as good as this film, I also recommend you other Truffaut films, such as The Last Metro, The Wild Child or even the bizarrely stylistic Fahrenheit 451