 | This film is François Truffaut's homage to Alfred Hitchcock, made shortly after Truffaut had published his book of extensive interviews with Hitchcock. As part of his homage, Truffaut chose the 1940 novel (Mariee etait en noir – The Bride Wore Black) written by Cornell Woolrich (billed as William Irish) on who's story Hitchcock's ‘Rear Window’ (1954) was based, and even chose long-time Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann (who gave us such wondrous soundtracks as ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘Psycho’ and ‘Taxi Driver’) to compose the stark and pulsating score. |
| This film is François Truffaut's homage to Alfred Hitchcock, made shortly after Truffaut had published his book of extensive interviews with Hitchcock. As part of his homage, Truffaut chose the 1940 novel (Mariee etait en noir – The Bride Wore Black) written by Cornell Woolrich (billed as William Irish) on who's story Hitchcock's ‘Rear Window’ (1954) was based, and even chose long-time Hitchcock collaborator Bernard Herrmann (who gave us such wondrous soundtracks as ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘Psycho’ and ‘Taxi Driver’) to compose the stark and pulsating score. One of Hitchcock's trademarks has been his habit of shooting on location and working the location itself into the plot. In ‘Strangers on a Train’ the climax comes in an amusement park, so naturally there's a deadly duel on a merry-go-round. Truffaut is loyal to this tradition… There are other Hitchcock touches. Truffaut uses such classic Hitchcock situations as the blurring of hero and villain archetypes, the chase; the unexpected interruption; the theme of restraint and confinement; the blurring of hero and villain archetypes and the series of evil events that take place in sunshine and happiness… Truffaut says he also meant it as a tribute to his mentor, Jean Renoir. As the film turns into a character study, comedy takes over and a dark Gallic humor presides that Renoir could feel comfortable with. Jeanne Moreau is one of the screen's great actresses, she gives an incredible performance as anti-hero Julie Kohler as she displays an air of radiance in her presence as well as complexity to a woman seeking vengeance only to realize how complicated it becomes. It’s also a film that plays with the conventions of suspense as it allows us to follow a character seeking justice, while as the film progresses, deep and dark secrets about this woman’s past are revealed. | Truffaut balances these dark themes extremely well, and the emotional deconstruction of his leading lady is something to be absolutely. Truffaut is certainly more interested in how his heroine operates than in keeping it a mystery why. Truffaut’s direction is definitely stylized in terms of the compositions and set-ups that he creates. A lot of it is inspired by some of the visual tricks of Alfred Hitchcock from the use of flashbacks to the way the suspense is build up. Truffaut’s framing and the way he has his actors positioned in a frame allows him to create startling moments in fact Raoul Coutard does superb work with the cinematography to display the colorful look of the locations as well as the interiors to great effect. First released in 1968, this brutal, darkly funny, and completely misunderstood film was universally panned by all French critics. Truffaut himself when asked if there’s one film in his filmography that he’d like to change, named this one as the one he would choose. Rumor has it that Moreau often directed many of the film’s scenes while Truffaut and cinematographer Coutard were engaging in their marathon on-set arguments. The screenplay by Francois Truffaut and Jean-Louis Richard is clearly something Tarantino enjoyed, as it seems an apparent inspiration for his film, ‘Kill Bill’ as like Truffaut he decided to tell the story in pieces, as if each character has a vantage point or explanation. ‘The Bride Wore Black’ finds a beautifully dark yet entertaining balance between B-movie conventions and his great European film sensibilities. |
