Only months after contributing to film history with a classic book of Alfred Hitchcock interviews, New Waver Franois Truffaut tried his hand at a thriller written by Rear Window's Cornell Woolrich, about a pissed-off bride-turned-widow (Moreau) set on vengeance against five sexist pigs. Sounds exciting, right? Should you put on your Kill Bill T-shirt and go? (Tarantino, for his part, denies this movie's influence, saying he's never seen it.)
Unfortunately, Truffaut fell into a pit of awkwardness on the project; editingwise, he's hardly in the league of Hitchcock, his sequences rushing ahead, his ironies too obvious. The Bride Wore Black only makes you yearn for better imitators like Brian De Palma. (Unlikely agreement came from Truffaut himself, ever the film critic, who hated his own movie.)
There is one thing special about it, and that's Bernard Herrmann's swooningly romantic score. Forget for a moment that it's ladled on like red sauce at an Olive Garden, making Truffaut's deficiencies more visible. Film Forum completes its two-week retrospective of the composer's work with Bride, a fine if limited choice. Do yourself a favor and rewatch Taxi Driver instead.
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