''The Bride Wore Black'' (french: La Mariée était en noir) is a 1968 French film directed by
François Truffaut and based on the
novel of the same name by William Irish, a pseudonym for
Cornell Woolrich. It stars
Jeanne Moreau,
Charles Denner,
Alexandra Stewart,
Michel Bouquet
Michel Bouquet (6 November 1925 – 13 April 2022) was a French stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1947 to 2020. He won the Best Actor European Film Award for ''Toto the Hero'' in 1991 and two Best Actor Césars for ...
,
Michael Lonsdale,
Claude Rich
Claude Rich (8 February 1929 – 20 July 2017) was a French stage and screen actor. He began his career in the theater before his film debut in 1955.
Personal life
He married actress Catherine Renaudin on 26 June 1959. They had two daughters, ...
and
Jean-Claude Brialy
Jean-Claude Brialy (30 March 1933 – 30 May 2007) was a French actor and film director.
Early life
Brialy was born in Aumale (now Sour El-Ghozlane), French Algeria, where his father was stationed with the French Army. Brialy moved to mainland ...
. Costumes by
Pierre Cardin
Pierre Cardin (, , ), born Pietro Costante Cardino (2 July 1922 – 29 December 2020), was an Italian-born naturalised-French fashion designer. He is known for what were his avant-garde style and Space Age designs. He preferred geometric shap ...
.
It is a revenge film in which a deranged widow murders the man who accidentally shot her husband on her wedding day, as well as his four friends. She wears only white, black or a combination of the two.
Plot
As the film opens, Julie Kohler (
Jeanne Moreau) tries to throw herself out of an upstairs window, but is stopped by her mother (
Luce Fabiole
Luce may refer to:
People
* Luce (name), as a given name and a surname
* Luce (singer)
Places
* Luče, a town in Slovenia
* Luce, Minnesota, an unincorporated community
* Luce Bay, a large Bay in Wigtownshire in southern Scotland
* Luce C ...
). Julie is dressed in black and is obviously grief-stricken. In the next scene, she is more composed, telling her mother she is going on a long trip, and counting out five piles of money. She gets onto a train, but right afterwards steps down on the opposite side, hidden from onlookers.
The next time Julie is seen, her hair is different, she is wearing white, and looking for a man called Bliss (
Claude Rich
Claude Rich (8 February 1929 – 20 July 2017) was a French stage and screen actor. He began his career in the theater before his film debut in 1955.
Personal life
He married actress Catherine Renaudin on 26 June 1959. They had two daughters, ...
). He is a ladies' man who is having a party on the eve of his wedding. When Julie arrives, aloof but attractive, he cannot resist approaching her. When they are alone on the balcony of Bliss's high-rise apartment, she tells him her name and pushes him off the balcony.
Her next victim is Coral (
Michel Bouquet
Michel Bouquet (6 November 1925 – 13 April 2022) was a French stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1947 to 2020. He won the Best Actor European Film Award for ''Toto the Hero'' in 1991 and two Best Actor Césars for ...
), a lonely bachelor. She lures him to a concert and they agree to meet the following night. Before their rendezvous, Julie buys a bottle of
arak and injects a syringe of poison into it. When she meets Coral at his apartment, she serves him the drink. When he collapses in agony, she reveals her identity to him. He begs for his life, explaining that it was all an accident. In a flashback, there is a wedding procession on the steps of a church; a single shot rings out and the groom falls to the ground. Julie is the widowed bride.
The next man is Morane (
Michel Lonsdale
Michael Edward Lonsdale-Crouch (24 May 1931 – 21 September 2020), commonly known as Michael Lonsdale and sometimes named as Michel Lonsdale, was a French actor and author who appeared in over 180 films and television shows. He is best know ...
) a would-be politician. She follows his wife and young son home, befriends the boy, and gets the wife to leave by sending a fake telegram that the wife's mother is ill. Julie poses as the boy's teacher Miss Becker, and offers to cook dinner for Morane and his son. Afterwards she plays hide-and-seek with the boy, hiding in an enclosed small closet underneath the stairs, before putting the boy to bed. As she is leaving the house, she pretends that she has lost her ring. Morane helps her search, crawling into the closet where she had hidden earlier. She slams the door and locks him inside. Julie reveals her true identity, and he pleads for his life, saying what happened was an accident.
Another flashback reveals that Julie's husband was killed by a rifle shot fired by Delvaux (
Daniel Boulanger Daniel Boulanger (24 January 1922 – 27 October 2014) was a French novelist, playwright, poet and screenwriter. He has also played secondary roles in films and was a member of the Académie Goncourt from 1983 until his death. He was born in Compi ...
), member of an informal hunting club that also included Bliss, Coral, Morane and Fergus. The five men were carelessly horsing around with a loaded rifle in an upper room across the street from the church. After the incident, they went their separate ways, intending never to reveal their involvement in the groom's death. Remorseless, Julie uses duct tape to seal the door of Morane's closet, and he suffocates to death.
Julie waits in Delvaux's junkyard, planning to kill him with a handgun, but he is arrested by the police. Julie moves on to find the fifth member of the hunting group: Fergus (
Charles Denner), an artist. Julie models for him as the huntress Diana, eventually shooting him in the back with an arrow. She cuts her face out of his painting to remove the only evidence of her presence. When she discovers that Fergus had painted a mural on his wall depicting her reclining in the nude, she gets some paint to cover the mural's face, but hears someone coming and has to leave.
Julie attends Fergus' funeral and allows herself to be arrested. She admits that she murdered the four men, but refuses to reveal her motives.
Inside a prison, a meal cart is making its rounds. Julie is a prisoner in the women's wing, and Delvaux is on the men's side. When Julie works in the kitchen, she hides a knife. When the cart makes its rounds with Julie as one of the attendants, it turns a corner out of our sight. After a brief pause, a man's scream is heard.
Cast
*
Jeanne Moreau as Julie Kohler
*
Michel Bouquet
Michel Bouquet (6 November 1925 – 13 April 2022) was a French stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1947 to 2020. He won the Best Actor European Film Award for ''Toto the Hero'' in 1991 and two Best Actor Césars for ...
as Coral
*
Jean-Claude Brialy
Jean-Claude Brialy (30 March 1933 – 30 May 2007) was a French actor and film director.
Early life
Brialy was born in Aumale (now Sour El-Ghozlane), French Algeria, where his father was stationed with the French Army. Brialy moved to mainland ...
as Corey
*
Charles Denner as Fergus
*
Claude Rich
Claude Rich (8 February 1929 – 20 July 2017) was a French stage and screen actor. He began his career in the theater before his film debut in 1955.
Personal life
He married actress Catherine Renaudin on 26 June 1959. They had two daughters, ...
as Bliss
*
Michel Lonsdale
Michael Edward Lonsdale-Crouch (24 May 1931 – 21 September 2020), commonly known as Michael Lonsdale and sometimes named as Michel Lonsdale, was a French actor and author who appeared in over 180 films and television shows. He is best know ...
as Clément Morane
*
Daniel Boulanger Daniel Boulanger (24 January 1922 – 27 October 2014) was a French novelist, playwright, poet and screenwriter. He has also played secondary roles in films and was a member of the Académie Goncourt from 1983 until his death. He was born in Compi ...
as Delvaux
*
Serge Rousseau
Serge Rousseau (13 March 1930 – 3 November 2007) was a French film and television actor and agent. He was a close friend of François Truffaut. He played the murdered husband of Jeanne Moreau in ''The Bride Wore Black'' and the unknown man ...
as David
*
Alexandra Stewart as Mlle Becker
*
Christophe Bruno as Cookie Morane
Critical reaction
The film received hostile criticism in France on its original release, and Truffaut later admitted that he no longer liked the film, and that the critics were right. Eventually, the movie received better reviews, and currently has an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (both critics and audience). During the 1983 Chicago International Film Festival, Truffaut was asked which of his films he would change if he could. He named this film, saying that it was the first time "we" had worked in color and the emotional tone of many scenes came out wrong. In fact, two years earlier, Truffaut had made ''
Fahrenheit 451
''Fahrenheit 451'' is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. Often regarded as one of his best works, ''Fahrenheit 451'' presents an American society where books have been personified and outlawed and "firemen" burn any that ar ...
'' in England in color with
Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg (; 15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing ''Performance'' (1970), '' Walkabout'' (1971), ''Don't Look Now'' (1973), '' The Man Who Fell to Earth'' (1976 ...
as his cinematographer. Clarification became available in 2009, when
Robert Osborne
Robert Jolin Osborne (; May 3, 1932 – March 6, 2017) was an American film historian, television presenter, author, actor and the primary host for more than 20 years of the cable channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Prior to hosting at TCM, Os ...
introduced
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...
' showing of ''The Bride Wore Black''. Cinematographer
Raoul Coutard
Raoul Coutard (16 September 1924 – 8 November 2016) was a French cinematographer. He is best known for his connection with the Nouvelle Vague period and particularly for his work with director Jean-Luc Godard. Coutard also shot films for New Wa ...
, who had worked with Truffaut on five previous films, had already made several color films with
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran ...
and had his own ideas on shooting. Coutard and Truffaut had multiple day-long arguments, and in many scenes direction to the actors was provided by the film's star, Jeanne Moreau. At the film's premiere, Truffaut was tormented by the contrast between the emotional notes he had intended to give the actors and the finished film, but he was too discreet in 1983 to admit the depths of his disappointment or to blame Coutard even indirectly.
John Simon described The Bride Wore Black as 'a piece of junk.'.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
's review in ''The Chicago Sun-Times'' was more positive, giving ''The Bride Wore Black'' 3.5 stars out of a possible 4. He praised Moreau's performance and wrote that, with the obvious tributes to
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
throughout the film, Truffaut had succeeded in creating "a marriage of the
French new wave
French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
and Hollywood tradition."
Despite the mixed critical reaction, it was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is a Golden Globe Award presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Until 1986, it was known as the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film, meaning that any non-American film coul ...
. The film was also a financial success, having 1,274,411 and 867,293 cinema admissions in France and Spain respectively. In addition the film grossed $2,000,000 in rentals worldwide, $1.75 million of which came from outside North America.
It earned rentals of $32,000 in the US.
Awards and nominations
Influence
The 1970
Jesus Franco
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
film ''
She Killed in Ecstasy
''She Killed in Ecstasy'' (german: Sie tötete in Ekstase es, Mrs. Hyde) is a 1971 West German-Spanish erotic thriller film directed by Jesús Franco. The film's plot borrows elements from previous Franco films ''Miss Muerte'' and ''Venus in Fu ...
'', starring Soledad Miranda as the vengeful bride, has the same premise, but approaches the story in a more linear fashion.
It inspired the 1971 Turkish film ''Melek mi, Şeytan mı''.
It inspired the 1976 Hindi film ''
Nagin''. The film was also the inspiration for
Kate Bush
Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...
's song "The Wedding List" on her album ''
Never for Ever
''Never for Ever'' is the third studio album by English art rock singer Kate Bush, released on 7 September 1980 by EMI Records, it was Bush's first No. 1 album and was also the first album by a British female solo artist to top the UK Albums Ch ...
''.
[Irwin, Colin]
"Paranoia and Passion of the Kate Inside"
''Melody Maker
''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...
'', 10 October 1980. Accessed: 12 November 2011.
Although ''
Kill Bill
''Kill Bill: Volume 1'' is a 2003 American martial arts film
Martial arts films are a subgenre of action films that feature numerous martial arts combat between characters. These combats are usually the films' primary appeal and entertainment ...
'' by
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
tells a story with some similarities, such as the notebooks in which the brides cross off their victims' names once they have killed them, Tarantino has stated that he has never seen ''The Bride Wore Black''.
[Tomohiro Machiyama]
Interview with Quentin Tarantino
, Japanese magazine ''Eiga Hi-Ho'' (Movie Treasures), 28 August 2003
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
The Bride Wore Black' at MGM Movie Database
*
' at ALLOCINE.com
*
"Η Νύφη φορούσε μαύρα"at in.gr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bride Wore Black
1968 films
1960s psychological thriller films
French films about revenge
Films based on American novels
Films based on crime novels
Films based on works by Cornell Woolrich
Films directed by François Truffaut
Films scored by Bernard Herrmann
French psychological thriller films
1960s French-language films
Films with screenplays by François Truffaut
French serial killer films
United Artists films
1960s French films