It's easy for the more casual movie goer to hear a term like "The French New Wave" and immediately jump to the conclusion that the term must mean a cold, impersonal, angular film with lofty aspirations of going over the heads of the average "Joe". This is not the case at all, instead the term refers to something quite the opposite. "Reel" people making engaging cinema for "real" people. One of the greatest purveyors of this was the legendary Francois Truffaut (better known to American audiences as the man who played LaCombe, the French scientist in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND). Truffaut, an ex-critic who wrote under the guidance of maybe the greatest film critic ever, Andre Bazin, went on to write and direct a number of classic films himself.
THE BRIDE WORE BLACK is one of my favorites from his cannon. The story is a familiar one now, but we'll get to that. To simply synopsize, a bride widowed on her wedding day, by the shooting of her husband by some unknown assailant, wants to commit suicide, but has her mind changed by her mother. Rather than doing away with herself after the loss of her lifelong love, she decides to track down the killer, or killers as it turns out, and enact her revenge in the memory of her fallen mate. Once discovering the identities of the men, she makes a list, and systematically begins hunting them down. With the aid of disguises, Julie changes her look and personality throughout the film, infiltrating the lives of the privileged ones who ruined her happiness, and offing them one by one.
Sound familiar? If you're thinking KILL BILL, then ding ding ding! THE BRIDE WORE BLACK bares so much in common with the heralded Tarantino film that I have to scream "rip off" at ole' QT. The influences he has cited for his revenge flick, which came 35 years later, never once include the uncannily similar THE BRIDE WORE BLACK. The obnoxious plagiarist even claims to not "get Truffaut" nor to have any great love for his work. CoughBULLSHITcough. Let's just say this isn't the first time I've brought it up, nor was it to be the first time this credit-taking tracing-paper "writer" (HA!) director was to pilfer from the brain trust of Truffaut's filmography (see tomorrows TRAILER OF THE DAY for another example).
That said, THE BRIDE WORE BLACK features the iconic Jeanne Moreau, one of France's greatest and well known actresses, in the lead. Not an action star by any stretch, she slips right into this role of julie, the woman who wears many faces masterfully. The men who round out the cast, Charles Denner, Alexandra Stewart, Michel Bouquet, Michael Lonsdale, Claude Rich and Jean-Claude Brialy, serve to support one of the single most intense roles ever played by a female. Strangely, it wasn't one of Truffaut's personal favorites among his work, but I think if he'd lived to have seen where action cinema has gone in the last 20 years, he'd at least understand he'd gotten there long before the more liberated roles for women, where femininity and gun play were not exclusive of each other. This was one of the early examples of what I call the "Ripley Role". Strong women, doing what needs to be done, matching the muscular brawn of men blow for blow, bullet for bullet.
This belongs on the shelf next to stuff like the gritty and brutal Abel Ferrera grinder MS. 45, and Jack Hill's bad ass blacktion flick COFFY.
The end of THE BRIDE WORE BLACK will leave you wide eyed and blown the hell away, guaranteed.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
~Sean Smithson
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