The Bride Wore Black DVD Review
Jean-Louis Richard and François Truffaut collaborated on the script (based on a story by Cornell Woolrich), and while there are vagaries in the story (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 after it occurs off-screen.
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), 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 or both 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 (further irony: she’s playing Diana the Huntress as his model and in life). 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.
Back in January of 2015, Twilight Time released a spiffy Blu-ray edition of Francois Truffaut’s somewhat Hitchcock-inspired thriller The Bride Wore Black. For those who aren’t into Blu-ray or who don’t want to go the Twilight Time route, MGM MOD is offering an alternative: a DVD-R version of the film. But is it actually a standard definition port of the high definition master Twilight Time presented, or is it something else? See the video and audio comments for further illumination.
Studio: MGM
Distributed By: Fox
Video Resolution and Encode: 480P/MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English 2.0 DD
Subtitles: None
Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 1 Hr. 48 Min.
Package Includes: DVD
Amaray caseDisc Type: DVD-R
Region: 1
Release Date: 01/15/2015
MSRP: $19.98
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 in the story (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 after it occurs off-screen.
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), 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 or both 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 (further irony: she’s playing Diana the Huntress as his model and in life). 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: 2.5/5 3D Rating: NA
Audio Rating: 3/5
Special Features Rating: 1/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
Reviewed By: Matt Hough
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