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The Bride Wore Black
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Radiance Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (30th June 2023). |
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The Film
 Top 10 Film Award (Best Film): François Truffaut (nominee) - Cahiers du Cinéma, 1968 Golden Globe (Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film): The Bride Wore Black (nominee) - Golden Gloves After a frantic attempt at suicide is stopped by her mother (Love and Death's Luce Fabiole), Julie Kohler (Mademoiselle's Jeanne Moreau) abruptly decides to leave home to improve her mental health… or so her mother thinks. Donning a stark white evening gown, Julie adopts the role of wallflower at a party on the eve of the wedding of ladies man Bliss (Is Paris Burning?'s Claude Rich) only to lure him onto the balcony and push him to his death after introducing herself. In Switzerland, she seduces lonely, insecure bachelor Rene Morane (Moonraker's Michael Lonsdale) with music and cyanide-laced wine. She then travels to the countryside where she impersonates the schoolteacher of young Cookie (Christophe Bruno) in order to gain entrance into the home of political hopeful Robert Coral (Malpertuis' Michel Bouquet) so that she can suffocate him to death in the cupboard under the stairs. To the police, these appear to be an unrelated deaths: an accident, a heart attack, and one definite murder. Bliss' friend Corey (The Phantom of Liberty's Jean-Claude Brialy) barely remembers the features of women he does not want to paw, and only Cookie knows that the woman both was and was not his teacher Mademoiselle Becker (Frantic's Alexandra Stewart) who is subsequently arrested. Only Julie knows what connects them – she and her confessor, that is – a drunken accident involving a loaded rifle that turned her into a widow on the very day she became a bride. She may believe that she is "already dead" but she will not stop until she makes everyone responsible pay with their lives. There are two more left, but crooked junkyard operator Delvaux (King of Hearts' Daniel Boulanger) has been arrested for an unrelated crime, and painter Fergus (Elevator to the Gallows' Charles Denner) is so besotted by her image that his masterwork may expose her before she completes her mission. Based on the novel by Cornell Woolrich from his "William Irish" period, François Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black has developed a reputation as one of his best (and best-known) films from his more more-hits-than-misses filmography post-The 400 Blows and Jules and Jim; particularly in light of the publication of former Cahiers du Cinéma writer Truffaut's "Hitchcock/Truffaut" in 1967 which is credited with making the case for Hitchcock as an auteur filmmaker. Apart from a vertiginous score by Bernard Herrmann (Psycho) that makes sinister the wedding march on cathedral organ and one playful sequence in which the audience is on the edge of their seats over whether Brialy's character will notice the large painting of Julie against the wall of Fergus' studio or if the artist will unknowingly cover it up before he sees it, there is actually little Hitchcock in this film which is not a thriller at all but a study in obsession that would make a good double feature with Truffaut's later death-obsessed The Green Room. There is almost no humor – the jokes the men make about women border on misogynistic and the only real laugh comes when Julie explains why there was never the possibility of Corey being her next victim – Moreau's Julie is colder than any Hitchcock blonde, no proclamation of love will sway her from the only love she can never have, and she is strengthened in her resolve by her priest's appeal to her moral sense, recognizing that no good can come of her acts which she plans to literally take to the grave. While the plot has proved highly-influential on films like Jess Franco's She Killed in Ecstasy (itself a pseudo-remake of his own The Diabolical Dr. Z) and Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, the subjective, mobile camerawork of Raoul Coutard (Contempt) here more so than any of his other collaborations with Truffaut seems to have also influenced the visual style of the blatantly Hitchockian Brian De Palma (Raising Cain). Truffaut would adapt Woolrich again with Mississippi Mermaid. Although Truffaut ultimately remained ambivalent about The Bride Wore Black, the film does compellingly embody his obsession with obsessions. 
Video
Released theatrically in the U.K. by United Artists, The Bride Wore Black arrived on DVD in the UK in 2007 from MGM; however, like their 1999 U.S. DVD (and even their 2015 manufactured-on-demand DVD-R), it made use of MGM's non-anamorphic letterboxed laserdisc master which was the only game in town until Twilight Time's 2015 Blu-ray which split the bitrate between separate encodes of the French and English-dubbed versions. Like Kino Lorber's U.S. Blu-ray from earlier this year, Radiance Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen Blu-ray had to make use of the existing HD master – none of MGM's United Artists Truffaut titles have been remastered for the recent Blu-ray reissues – but the new encode is ever-so-slightly darker resulting in richer saturated colors, more healthy-looking skintones, and slightly more visible texture in clothing and hair. While a new 4K restoration would be better – and the film is certainly deserving of one – Radiance Films does a good job given the source master. 
Audio
While Twilight Time's Blu-ray featured separate encodes of the French and English-dubbed versions, Kino Lorber (like the original MGM DVD) featured French and English tracks on one encode. Radiance Films has left off the English dub – not a deal-breaker but a pity – and the LPCM 2.0 mono track of a mix that is often at its most sedate during its most intense moments with the silences suddenly pierced by Herrmann's church organ, those are moments of emotional intensity in Moreau's performance, or the panic of a few of her victims. Optional English subtitles are free of any noticeable errors.
Extras
Radiance Films has not carried over the Twilight Time commentary by film historians Julie Kirgo, Steven C. Smith, and Nick Redman which had been included on the Kino Lorber disc in favor of a two new interviews and two once-exclusive extras from the 2020 French Blu-ray from the François Truffaut, la Passion cinéma boxed set. First up is a television interview with director François Truffaut by Anne Andreu (11:37) from 1968 that is most informative as Truffaut notes that most of his films – and most French films – are about themes while Hollywood focuses on plot, and his desire to treat an "extreme Hollywood situation in a French way" bridging a Hichcockian plot and with Jean Renoir's approach to character with a bit of Jean Cocteau, focusing on relationships between men and women in the dialogue – noting that little of what is said has any real bearing on the plot – and the thriller aspect purely on a visual level. Also from the French boxed set is a television interview with actress Jeanne Moreau (4:41) from 1969 in which she discusses working with Truffaut, noting that he does not so much offer her direction as deliver his impressions on the character to common acquaintances who pass them onto her, but this film was different in that he focused on directing the men, indirectly imposing the character's solitude onto her.  New to this release is an appreciation by "Hitchcock/Truffaut" filmmaker Kent Jones (15:31) in which he reveals that Truffaut took on a cheap genre project as a means of funding his production company, getting to work with Moreau again, and describes the Woolrich novel as a "cheesy reading experience" that Truffaut elevated in adaptation. He reveals that it was not a happy production, with Truffaut and Coutard disagreeing over the visual approach in what would be their first collaboration in color (and ultimately their last work together), and Truffaut not being happy with Herrmann's score. Jones then discusses the film in the context of Truffaut's subsequent filmography and its recurring themes. Also new is a n interview with critic Barry Forshaw on Cornell Woolrich and the Adaptation (8:51) in which he describes the differences between the novel and the film, Woolrich's career from his jazz age novels to his "black" period – from which the novel originates – and his unhappy private life. The disc also includes the 1958 short film Les surmenés (24:37) directed by Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, written by Truffaut, and starring Brialy, as well as the film's U.S. theatrical trailer (1:51). 
Packaging
Not provided for review were the reversible cover featuring designs based on original posters or the removable OBI strip – which leaves the packaging free of certificates and markings – and a booklet featuring archival writing by Truffaut and Moreau, and a contemporary article on the film by Penelope Houston.
Overall
Although Truffaut ultimately remained ambivalent about The Bride Wore Black, the film does compellingly embody his obsession with obsessions.
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