François Truffaut took some motifs from Alfred Hitchcock and mixed in his own unique blend of character-laden melancholy to come up with The Bride Wore Black. Appearing in the latter part of the cynical 1960s, The Bride Wore Black most appropriately offers Truffaut a chance to present a revenge quasi-fantasy featuring one of the actresses who responded most glowingly to his direction but this time in a completely different type of role, a fascinating one which takes multiple views to understand and appreciate the layers of emotions that are being buried deep inside a mask of numbed shock and regret.
Studio: MGM
Distributed By: Twilight Time
Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HDMA (Mono), Other
Subtitles: English
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 1 Hr. 47 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray
keep caseDisc Type: BD50 (dual layer)
Region: All
Release Date: 01/20/2014
MSRP: $29.95
The Production Rating: 4/5
Jean-Louis Richard and François Truffaut collaborated on the script (based on a story by Cornell Woolrich), and while there are vagaries (how did Julie identify the five men when they were all from different walks of life and only met for card games and drinking in private?) and some sloppiness in some set-ups (the first murder is poorly staged – Hitchcock filmed falling from great heights much more imaginatively), the film is, despite all of the death, also aglow with some of Truffaut’s wonderful lyricism: the white scarf wafting away in the updraft after her first killing symbolizing her lost innocence, the Hitchcockian point of view camera shots especially following a little boy on his walk home, a brilliant montage as Julie poses for the artist Fergus (Charles Denner) as the director jump cuts between the model and the sketches, an evocative wooden puppet figure on the wall whose head drops as the door shuts, symbolic of the artist losing his head over Julie not realizing she’s out to kill him. Truffaut doesn’t set out to make the murders especially gruesome (this isn’t Psycho or The Birds), but there’s a kind of shuddery horror present as she calmly watches the milquetoast (Michel Bouquet) die from poisoning, and we are brought into the final two murders either after the fact or it occurs off-screen with only blood-curdling screams to let us know what's happened.
Contrary to the charming joie de vivre that she displayed during much of Truffaut’s Jules et Jim, Jeanne Moreau here is almost like the walking dead. She can be animated for a few moments when necessary (playing with the child to allow her to convince the father of her good intentions, or posing as the huntress Diana), but so much of her character is obviously dead inside (a telling conversation with a priest during confession late in the movie is a magnificent moment) that Moreau can let her pained eyes and stillness do the acting for her. Brilliantly dressed in either black or white throughout the film (symbolizing both her widowed and virginal states: she never got her wedding night and she had saved herself for it), the character remains a fascinating one. As the five victims, most of whom are rampant chauvinists and unapologetic womanizers, Claude Rich, Michel Bouquet, Michael Lonsdale, Daniel Boulanger, and Charles Denner are all superb, especially Denner whom we see change as he ironically falls in love with his eventual killer. Jean-Claude Brialy has some key moments as a friend of a couple of the murdered men who helps put together the identity of the killer.
Video Rating: 4/5 3D Rating: NA
Audio Rating: 4/5
Special Features Rating: 4/5
Isolated Music and Effects Track: presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono.
Theatrical Trailer (1:56. SD)
MGM 90th Anniversary Trailer (2:06, HD)
Enclosed CD - Bernard Herrmann Interview (78:49): a 1970 sit-down interview with the irascible composer.
Enclosed Six-Page Booklet: contains tinted stills, original poster art on the back cover, and film historian Julie Kirgo’s illuminating analysis of the movie.
Overall Rating: 4/5
Reviewed By: Matt Hough
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