The Bride Wore Black

Her husband is shot dead on the church steps on their wedding day. Julie Kohler finds the five men responsible one at a time and approaches each of them differently. François Truffaut directed, from Cornell Woolrich's novel. Jeanne Moreau stars and Bernard Herrmann wrote the score. It met hostile reviews in France and Truffaut later conceded the critics had a point. At the 1983 Chicago International Film Festival he traced his dissatisfaction to the colour cinematography. He and cinematographer Raoul Coutard disagreed seriously, and Jeanne Moreau sometimes directed scenes herself. Roger Ebert defended it, writing that Truffaut had achieved a marriage of the French New Wave and Hollywood tradition. Rotten Tomatoes now sits at 85 percent; John Simon called it a piece of junk. The worldwide gross was around 9.6 million dollars. Its influence spread: a Hindi adaptation followed in 1976 and Kate Bush's song The Wedding List came out of it. The resemblance to Kill Bill gets raised often; Tarantino has said he never saw the original. Who it is for: viewers who like revenge stories and want to watch Moreau. Who it is not for: anyone looking for Truffaut at his best. The director himself was not happy with it.