The Bride Wore Black is a movie from 1968 directed by Francois Truffaut, and based on the novel by William Irish (that is how he is credited, but this was a pen-name for Cornell Woolrich). The book is one I rather like and was one of the first books for which I ever wrote an introduction, when it was reprinted by Chivers in the late, lamented Black Dagger series way back in 1992. (Suffice to say that, at that time, I had absolutely no idea of how many book intros I would go on to write - if anyone had told me, I'd probably have fainted at the prospect...)
This is a stylish film, a point underlined by the fact that the costumes are by Pierre Cardin. The soundtrack was written by the great Bernard Herrmann, a very clear signal of Truffaut's' admiration for the work of Alfred Hitchcock. And the eponymous bride (here called Julie Kohler - in the book she is Julie Killeen) is played by the super-stylish Jeanne Moreau.
How much substance this version of the story has is a different matter. This is a combination of serial killer story and revenge thriller, and Truffaut doesn't bother too much with mystification. He is more concerned with charting Julie's single-minded quest for vengeance. But this raises some questions that, to my regret, he doesn't attempt to answer.
Above all, how did Julie get on to the track of her victims? For me, explaining this should be an important part of the story. But Truffaut doesn't bother. His focus is on the visual, which is fair enough for a film-maker, but I do think that, when telling a story like this, it's a good plan to do everything possible to encourage the viewer to suspend disbelief and, ideally, to encourage a degree of identification with the protagonist, even if they are up to no good. I felt that Truffaut - and Moreau - kept me at a distance. A deliberate choice, I'm sure, but although the film is a good one, it does have some shortcomings and isn't quite up to the standard of the source novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment