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, Michael Lonsdale, Claude Rich, and Jean-Claude Brialy.
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) 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), 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, 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, 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, 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, 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.[1]
Despite the critical reaction, it was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Influence
The film was the inspiration for Kate Bush's song "The Wedding List" on her album Never for Ever.[citation needed]
Although Kill Bill by Quentin Tarantino tells a very similar story, Tarantino has stated that he has never seen the film.[1]
References
- ^ Truffaut, interview with Richard Roud for Camera Three (1977), released on the Criterion Collection edition of Jules et Jim, Disc 2.
External links
