Movie Review: The Bride Wore Black (1968)

The Bride Wore Black (1968) co-written and directed by Francois Truffaut

Julie Kohler (Jeanne Moreau) is stopped from throwing herself out a window by her mother. The mother convinces her to get away for a while. Julie goes to the train station with a young friend, gets on the train for Paris, and then exits the other side. She stalks a guy at his high-rise apartment, eventually getting herself into his engagement party. She asks him out to the balcony where she contrives to push him off to his death. She races away and later crosses off a name in her little black book. Thus begins the revenge killing spree of a deeply disturbed (but somewhat sympathetic) woman.

Francois Truffaut made the film as a homage to Alfred Hitchcock, even using long-time Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann for the score. It shares a lot of Hitchcock's mannerisms, like lingering shots or action happening just off screen. The movie also inspired others, most obviously Quentin Tarentino's Kill Bill films. The plot is fairly basic and the movie stands on its style. Moreau does a good job with the character, making the self-justified serial killer someone to root for rather than to blame. The circumstances of her husband's death on their wedding day make her attitude plausible. The five guys involved have scattered so the movie goes from murder to murder with Kohler as the only connecting thread. The style holds a viewer's interest but it's not as great as Hitchcock's films.

Mildly recommended.