I rented "The Bride Wore Black" and comment on it
mostly for Niner, who said he recently read Truffaut's book on
Hitchcock (which I also happened to have reread a couple of
months ago). The film is Truffaut's homage to Hitch and stars
Jeanne Moreau as a widowed bride tracking down the five men she
considers responsible for her groom's death.
Mostly, I'd say that although the movie seems on the surface
anti-male, it's really anti-sex. Moreau is a virgin and in one
sequence she models Diana, the huntress, who of course killed
Actaeon for seeing her nude. Moreau's victims are all skirt
chasers whose daily lives are insipid and at least in one case
criminal. Her less physical, more romanticized love, however,
appears no better as it leads to madness and death.
One criticism I have is that Moreau just isn't physically
attractive enough for the role, although Truffaut may have wanted
to make men seem even more pathetic by how easily even a "passable"
woman leads them astray. Considering her frigid exterior, general
rudeness, and age, I found it difficult to believe she could more
or less seduce male after male so easily--especially as with one
exception we're supposed to believe these men were highly
successful with the ladies.
The movie is worth a watch for its stylistic value and a fair
amount of suspense, but it drags in parts. And I did burst out
laughing at a couple of unintentionally humorous places: i.e.,
the plot relies on contrivances such as one might find in the EC
comic books of the 1950s.
