The Bride Wore Black (1968)

After attempting to commit suicide, the widow Julie Kohler (Jeanne Moreau) tells her mother that she will leave town. However, she stays and hunts down and executes the five men that accidentally killed her beloved husband David on the stairs of the church immediately after their wedding ceremony.

"La Mariée Était en Noir" is a simple but excellent thriller. The geniality of François Truffault develops the tragedy of the lead character Julie Kohler with only few flashbacks. Jeanne Moreau is amazing, in the role of a woman that sees her world falling apart with the stupid murder of her beloved husband, and is driven by revenge to stay alive. The conclusion with the camera focusing the security guard is fantastic. The famous "cross of legs" of Catherine Tramell in "Basic Instinct" was probably inspired in the shy one of Julie Kohler in the police department. "The Bride" of "Kill Bill" is also inspired in this classic French movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Noiva Estava de Preto" ("The Bride Was In Black")

Note: on 06 December 2010, I saw this film again on DVD.

Fmovies: 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!

The Bride Wore Black is the penultimate revenge flick. The Bride (Jeanne Moreau) is devested when her husband is murdered on their wedding day. After a failed suicide attempt, The Bride (a couple of charecters in the film refer to her by this moniker) makes a vow to god that she'll find the men that are responsible for his death and avenge him in the only way she know's how. I LOVE this movie. Jeanne Moreau is THE BRIDE and no one else can lay claim to the title. No one, not even Uma Thurman or anybody else.

Jeanne Moreau delivers such a cold and icy performance. The way she carries out her vengence is truly stylish and shocking. Ice floes through THE BRIDE's veins as she stalks her prey.

Truffant is a great director and this film shows off his style of filmmaking. This film was very entertaining from the begining to end. Unlike most directors, Truffant knows what he wants and gets to the point. No distracting sub-plots here folks. This is a revenge flick and Truffant delivers on this promise. After seeing this film you'll never look at any other revenge films the same. I Loved that haunting wedding theme. I haven't seen a truly good film in such a long time. I highly recommend this film.

A++

The Bride Wore Black fmovies. 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

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.

Francois Truffaut's THE BRIDE WORE BLACK is an excellent gift of a film to fans of Hitchcock and even to the master himself. There are many nods to Hitch's films and you know Truffaut had done his homework while making the picture (by writing the definitive book on Hitch's films). What makes BRIDE WORE BLACK more than just mere homage is an elevation of suspense and a less stylized, blatant approach to the material. Truffaut does not sell his own cinematic soul and is able to present a terrific suspense story of his own. It was almost like Hitch's work turned inside out. Jeanne Moreau plays a miserable middle-aged woman, both suicidal and murderous, looking to avenge the death of her life-long companion and husband.

We see the murder of the husband repeatedly throughout the picture, studied from different angles and vantage points. He is assassinated on the steps of the church, while the thunderous 'wedding suite' plays rather ominously. We find out why she picks her victims the way she does and how they all relate to the slaying. This is one ticked off woman. Some of the murders echoed Hitch, one inspired by FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, another from NOTORIOUS. The scenes and "borrowing" that occur here are not as blatant as you may think, however. They are mostly inspirations and Truffaut puts his own spin on them, meshing them together or taking them apart and reassembling the elements. If you are a Hitch connoisseur, it is fun to interpret what Truffaut is doing with the master's vast material.

I was also struck by a feeling of NORTH BY NORTHWEST, but with a woman as the main protagonist and the journey turned inside out. Of course, we get the character who has seen this person before and either leads to her capture or is on to her, a staple in Hitch flix. The ultimate homage is Bernard Herrmann's score (he was Hitch's right hand man for years). The 'wedding suite' is louder than usual, resonating evil, and the music as a whole is Herrmann's typical gothic work, brilliant and memorable. Truffaut extends Hitchcock by showing us in more graphic detail some of the killings and the relentless mission this woman is on is not stylized the least bit.

Check out the poisoning scene and tell me you don't see Ingrid Bergman looking at Claude Raines circling and bellowing in expressionistic ways. Trains are littered throughout the film, one on the lampshade of a young boy, another with Moreau riding on it. This is all great, but it transcends some of Hitch's work in many ways. The blood-curdling ending is one of the best I have ever seen in film, period. Considering BRIDE WORE BLACK was released in 1968, the horrific ending may have inspired HITCH of all people when he made FRENZY in 1972. Watch both and see if you know what I mean. This is a must see for foreign film fans as well.

RATING: 8 1/2 of 10