The Bride Wore Black
Encyclopedia
The Bride Wore Black is a 1968
1968 in film
The year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...

 French film
Cinema of France
The Cinema of France comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of France or by French filmmakers abroad.France is the birthplace of cinema and was responsible for many of its early significant contributions. Several important cinematic movements, including the Nouvelle...

 directed by François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...

 and based on the novel of the same name
The Bride Wore Black (novel)
The Bride Wore Black is a 1940 American novel written by Cornell Woolrich. In 1967, it was adapted into a film of the same name by French film director François Truffaut....

 by William Irish, a pseudonym for Cornell Woolrich
Cornell Woolrich
Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich was an American novelist and short story writer who sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley....

. It stars Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director.She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française...

, Charles Denner
Charles Denner
Charles Denner was a French actor born to a Jewish family in Poland. During his 30-year career he worked with some of France's greatest directors of the time, including Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Costa-Gavras, Claude Lelouch and François Truffaut who gave him two of his most...

, Alexandra Stewart
Alexandra Stewart
Alexandra Stewart is a Canadian actress.Born in Montreal, Quebec, Alexandra Stewart left for Paris, France, in 1958, to study art...

, Michel Bouquet
Michel Bouquet
Michel Bouquet is a French film actor. He has appeared in over 90 films since 1947. He was born in Paris, France.-Selected filmography:* La petite chambre * Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars...

, Michael Lonsdale
Michael Lonsdale
Michael Lonsdale , sometimes billed as Michel Lonsdale, is a French actor who has appeared in over 180 films and television shows....

, Claude Rich
Claude Rich
Claude Rich is a French actor. He began his career as a theater actor, before his film debut in 1955 with René Clair, Les Grandes Manoeuvres.He married the actress Catherine Renaudin on 26 June 1959...

 and Jean-Claude Brialy
Jean-Claude Brialy
Jean-Claude Brialy – died 30 May 2007, Monthyon, Seine-et-Marne, France was a French actor, director, and socialite.-Biography:...

.

It is a revenge film in which five men make a young bride a widow on her wedding day. She takes her revenge, methodically killing each of the five men using various methods.

Synopsis

Julie Kohler (Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director.She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française...

) is introduced to us trying to commit suicide, only to be stopped by her mother (Luce Fabiole) before she jumps from her window. She is in black clothing and in obvious grief, but the reason is not yet revealed. Suddenly, Julie changes her attitude and informs her mother of her decision to take a long trip to forget. Yet, apparently, this is not what she has in mind, since she gets on the train in the presence of her young niece and then right afterwards steps down from the other side. From this point on it is clear that she has something else in mind.

The next time we see her, her hair is changed, she is in white and looking for a man called Bliss. Bliss (Claude Rich
Claude Rich
Claude Rich is a French actor. He began his career as a theater actor, before his film debut in 1955 with René Clair, Les Grandes Manoeuvres.He married the actress Catherine Renaudin on 26 June 1959...

), a ladies' man, is having a party on the eve of his wedding but when Julie shows up mysteriously uninvited and totally attractive, he cannot resist the temptation to approach her and try to find out whether she is a figure of his past. While alone, she pushes Bliss off the balcony of his high-rise apartment to his death.

Her next victim is Coral (Michel Bouquet
Michel Bouquet
Michel Bouquet is a French film actor. He has appeared in over 90 films since 1947. He was born in Paris, France.-Selected filmography:* La petite chambre * Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars...

), a lonely bachelor, whom she lures to a concert by leaving a ticket with his concierge. After the concert, they agree to meet the following night. Coral can't believe his luck. Before their rendezvous, Julie is seen buying a bottle of liqueur and injecting a syringe into it. When she meets Coral at his apartment, she serves him the poisoned liqueur and watches over him as he dies, revealing her true identity. He begs for his life, explaining that it was all an accident. We then see a wedding procession pause on the steps of a church, where a single shot rings out and the groom falls to the ground.

As she travels to her next victim, Julie is seen crossing off a name in a little black book. She cases the next victim, Morane (Michel Lonsdale
Michael Lonsdale
Michael Lonsdale , sometimes billed as Michel Lonsdale, is a French actor who has appeared in over 180 films and television shows....

), by following his wife and child home from school. She befriends the boy, and lures the wife away from the home by sending a fake telegram that her mother has fallen ill. Julie arrives at the house and offers to cook dinner for Morane and his son. After dinner, she plays hide and seek with the boy before putting him to bed, hiding in a crawlspace underneath the stairs. As she is leaving, she claims to have lost a ring. While helping her look for it in the crawlspace where she was hiding, Julie locks Morane in the crawlspace. She reveals her true identity, and he pleads for his life. Finally, it's revealed that Julie's husband was killed by an accidental shot by Delvaux (Daniel Boulanger
Daniel Boulanger
Daniel Boulanger is a French novelist, playwright, poet and screenwriter. He has also played secondary roles in films and has been a member of the Académie Goncourt since 1983.-Filmography:...

), one of a group of five friends. The five men were horrified by the accident, and disbanded, hoping to never have to confront their guilt. Julie duct tapes the gaps in the door frame, sealing Morane inside to suffocate.

As she is about to kill Delvaux with a gun, he is arrested by the police. She puts a question mark next to his name in her book, and moves on to Fergus (Charles Denner
Charles Denner
Charles Denner was a French actor born to a Jewish family in Poland. During his 30-year career he worked with some of France's greatest directors of the time, including Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Costa-Gavras, Claude Lelouch and François Truffaut who gave him two of his most...

), who is an artist. She models for him as the huntress Diana, and shoots him with an arrow. She cuts her face out of the painting, keeping with her habit of covering her tracks. She then finds a mural Fergus has painted on his wall of her reclining in the nude. She starts to paint over her face, but then decides not to.

At Fergus' funeral, she allows herself to be caught. She admits to the police that she has murdered all four men. She does not reveal why.

The film moves to a prison, where a soup cart is making its rounds. At each cell, the door is opened, and the prisoners are given some soup and some bread. Julie is revealed as a prisoner in the women's wing, and Delvaux is revealed as a prisoner on the men's side. When it is Julie's turn to work in the kitchen, she hides a knife on the soup cart. The cart makes its rounds, and turns a corner out of sight. After a brief pause, a man is heard screaming, and the movie ends.

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. 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
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury. The novel presents a future American society where reading is outlawed and firemen start fires to burn books...

in England in color with Nicholas Roeg as his cinematographer. Clarification became available in 2009, when Robert Osborne introduced TCM's showing of The Bride Wore Black. Cinematogapher Raoul Coutard, who had worked with Truffaut on five previous films, had already made several color films with Godard 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 Moureau. 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 had been too discreet in 1983 to admit the depths of his disappointment or to blame Coutard even indirectly.

Despite the critical reaction, it was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the awards presented at the Golden Globes, an American film awards ceremony.Until 1986, it was known as the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film, meaning that any non-American film could be honoured...

. 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.

Influence

The film was the inspiration for Kate Bush
Kate Bush
Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...

's song "The Wedding List" on her album Never for Ever
Never for Ever
- Personnel :* Ian Bairnson: Guitar, Bass vocals* Brian Bath: Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Background Vocals* Andrew Bryant: Vocals, Background Vocals* Kevin Burke: Violin...

.

Although Kill Bill
Kill Bill
Kill Bill Volume 1 is a 2003 action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the first of two volumes that were theatrically released several months apart, the second volume being Kill Bill Volume 2....

by Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...

 tells a very similar story, Tarantino has stated that he has never seen the film.

External links

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