When The Bride Wore
Black (based on a novel by William Irish, who also wrote “It Had to Be
Murder”, which Hitch adapted into Rear
Window) begins by showing generally mundane images set to Bernard Herrmann’s overwhelming
and overwhelmingly recognizable score, it’s as if
Truffaut is trying to shove a signifier of Hitchcock’s most melodramatic scenes
into scenes nearly devoid of melodrama despite the fact that the woman on
screen tries to kill herself at one point.
That woman is Julie Kohler (Jeanne Moreau), who soon sets
about her own obsessive mission by insinuating herself into the lives of
various men and killing them. Her motive remains a mystery for a quarter of the
film, but since the title of the movie is The
Bride Wore Black, I don’t feel like I’m spoiling too much by saying she’s
on a mission of revenge against the creeps she blames for her groom’s death.
While Truffaut seems to drop clues about his movies’ apparent
main influence (we see such locations of iconic Hitchcock scenes as a
schoolyard, a speeding train, and a concert hall), Julie differs from the mass
of Hitch’s charming main characters because she is a husk (it is telling that
she shares a surname with the similarly emotion-drained title character of Shoot the Piano Player). She carries on with her grim mission devoid of
emotion, something that could not be said of even sketchy characters like
Norman Bates and Marnie Edgar. This means The
Bride Wore Black is not as fun to watch as your average Hitchcock movie,
but maybe revenge, murder, and soul-destroying grief are not supposed to be fun
(or maybe they are—just see how Quentin Tarantino reshaped this movie’s premise
into Kill Bill). It is, however, a
suspense film worthy of the master when obstacles such as an unexpected visit
from a redheaded model, a sweet little boy, and even the possibility that she
may have found a new love fall into Julie’s vengeful path. These are the film’s
most powerful moments.
I’ve been wanting to see The
Bride Wore Black ever since I saw Kill
Bill ten years ago. It’s finally available on blu-ray via Twilight Time,
and in a beautiful transfer with strong blacks, strong color (though this is not
a strikingly colorful movie), and strong grain. Supplementing the film
(presented in both subtitled and English dubbed versions—the dubbed one
contains different musical cues) is a commentary by film historians Julie Kirgo
and Nick Redman and Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith. Smith’s presence puts a
lot of the focus on the score, and he discusses the clashes between Hermann and
Truffaut over the director’s choices in this film—as well as Herrmann’s clashed
with Hitchcock. Kirgo tries to pull the focus away from Hitchcock, whose
influence she does not see as strongly in the film as a lot of other commentators
do, and discusses the more meaningful role gender dynamics play in the film. There
is also a supplementary CD featuring a 79-minute interview with Bernard Herrmann
that spotlights the composer’s short temper. The blu-ray disc’s isolated score
track spotlights his art.
Get The Bride Wore
Black on Screenarchives.com here.
