Hitchcock/True Foe

The Bride Wore Black (François Truffaut, 1968)

François Truffaut might very well be known to cinephilles for being part of the Nouvelle Vague, potentially pornographic sounding movies like Jules et Jim (1962) and The 400 Blows (1959), he's probably more likely to be known to sci-fi heads for his adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451, and for playing the French bloke in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Truffaut also happend to write a book about the portly master of the macabre Alfred Hitchcock's films and craftmanship; subsequently, it followed with him helming the revenge thriller The Bride Wore Black (1968) a couple of years later. The Hitchcockian influence is abundantly evident.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and in the case of Jeanne Moreau's newly wedded bride, her joyous day is instantly ruined as her other-half is shot dead while they're both exiting the church. With the love of her life gone, she's left feeling suicidal and comes up with a new set of vows: to eliminate those responsible for her husband's dead. Truffaut's film focuses on our vengeful bride's determination to hunt down her husband's killer(s); travelling all over the country, befriending or seducing her prey and then killing them. As a result, The Bride Wore Black plays out like a series of chapters focusing on the last days or hours of  her enemies.

Based on Cornell Woolrich's 1940 pulp novel (who also penned Hitchcock's seminal Rear Window (1954) and Mississipi Mermaid (1969), another Hitchcockian style film by Truffaut), the film adaptation entirely omits the on-going police investigation, as well as the protagonist's unhinged mental state resulting with the murdering of innocent men, à la Ms .45 (1981). Therefore, the film can leave the viewer perplexed with just how Moreau is able to track down the persons on her hit list, along with how freely she is able to operate in achieving her goals.

There's a lot to like about The Bride Wore Black: it's well shot and breezily paced above all else. The modern architectural shots and sixties decor remind me of a Jess Franco film without all the unnecessary hairy muff, but, much like Red Sun (1970), the German New Wave film covered here recently, it's another film where its unintentional comedy has me drawn to it like a moth to a flame. The fact that her victims are completely trusting brainlets is a major example of this. The first one hilariously climbs over a high-rise penthouse balcony to retrieve her scarf before he's predictably dispatched. Another ends up being locked under the stairs and is suffocated. Also, beauty might proverbially be in the eye of the beholder, but in the case of our victims, they definitely should have gone to Specsavers. A short, doughy, middle aged looking woman doesn't exactly pose in the head cannon of a French femme fatale, like say Brigitte Bardot or Catherine Deneuve. This especially rings true when she poses as an artist's model and has to dress up as Diana, the Roman goddess of hunting and looks completely ridiculous. However, what's beyond criticism for me is Moreau's actual performance, it's legitimately great as her immense bottled rage feels so tangible on screen.

Veteran composer and Hitchcock collaborator, Bernard Herrmann provides the score for Truffaut's film and it's laced with all his typical idiosyncracies. Worth stating that he also provided the score for another Hitchcockian thriller during the same year with the Boulting brothers' Twisted Nerve. I much prefer the latter film's score, but Herrmann composing any thriller is a win, in my opinion.

Finally, I can't really sign off without the obligatory comparisons to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill (2003 - 2004) duology being evidenet. The bride's revenge plot line is the obvious one, of course, but there are also the scenes where the bride crosses out the names of her victims that are notable, too. Let's be honest, The Bride Wore Black isn't exacty the only film to inspire Tarantino's work, particularly one that serves as a massive geek-out for genre film fanatics.