La mariée était en noir

La Mariee Etait En Noir/The Bride Wore Black(1967) is more a study of lost love and revenge than a film of Hitchcockian proportions. Based on the novel by Cornell Woorich, The Bride Wore Black(1967) is a sad story that has an Edgar Allen Poe quality to it. Jeanne Moreau tops her performance from Jules & Jim(1961) with her role as the death obsessed Julie Kohler. Fits in with the two themes of Francois Truffaut in life and death. Films that belong with the theme of life are The 400 Blows(1959), The Wild Child(1969), and Day for Night(1972). The movies that goes with the theme of death are The Bride Wore Black(1967), Jules & Jim(1961) and The Story of Adele H(1975).

The performance of Jeanne Moreau is as heart wretching to watch as the performance given by Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H(1975). The film score by Bernard Herrmann is hauntedly macabre. The scenes depicting Julie planning her revenge are chilling and well planned. The Bride Wore Black(1967) showed the big respect Francois Truffaut had for the techniques of Alfred Hitchcock. Another movie that has its tragic elements is the Terence Fisher film, Frankenstein Created Woman(1966). The only difference between the film and the novel is the omission of the twist ending from the motion picture.

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.

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

Set aside the place of the picture in Truffaut's oeuvre, along with the extent of Hitchcock's influence and the literary antecedents of the story; in other words, take a blindfold test, so to speak, on the movie itself. If created by J. Doe from a story by R. Roe, this film would generate lukewarm praise at best - none for the credibility of the plot or main character. The narrative, presented in a naturalistic, matter-of-fact manner, is in fact completely contrived to serve the purposes of a bizarre story. The leading character, whether to be viewed as suicidal or homicidal (or both), is presented not as psychotic, but as in total emotional control of herself - as self-composed and methodical as she could possibly be.

It just doesn't work. The stories Hitchcock used were developed from simple, seemingly random everyday encounters, the kinds of mishaps or minor aberrations that might touch any of us. Such an approach here might have made the picture more worthy of serious appraisal.

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!