Paul Nevai IMDb classifies this as "Crime, Drama, Mystery". If one insists to call this a crime movie, then I would have to say that it is extraordinarily naive and unrealistic; the plot is essentially juvenile. Compare it to, say, Munich, that is also a "methodological revenge movie". In the latter, every step is realistically planned whereas in this movie every action in childish . The guy and the scarf? The poison through the cork? The duct tape? The arrow? The knife? Gimme a break.However, let's take out the "crime" characterization, and replace it by "melodrama". Then we get an entertaining movie with great performance by Jeanne Moreau.So, calling this a mystery-melodrama, we can sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.P.S. In every movie. especially in French ones, every killer easily gets hold of a poison whose couple of drops are fatal. The only poison I can get is a dosage of large fries at a local fast food restaurant.

Applause Meter To really take in this film, you have to watch it consciously disassociating yourself from the legend of genius that is the legacy of Francois Truffaut. So this is Truffaut's homage to Hitchcock?! This is a script a boyish, 12 year old Hitch might have written, read the finished product through once, and thrown it giggling into the wastebasket. The Bernard Hermann score seems a melodramatic intrusion, musical phrases and tonal pastiche; something that Hermann pulled from a grab bag of discarded "mood" compositions. Hitchcock females played detached, cool blooded seductresses. Here Truffaut has deformed this template presenting Jeanne Moreau as a wooden female mannequin exclusively captivating men simply through displaying her couture wardrobe and coiffed hair. Hitchcock's women were aloof allures, but each invariably had vulnerabilities threatening to surface. We see no cracks like this in Moreau's character; she's a stylish popsicle. All this doesn't speak well for the male sex, each of whom immediately fall for her like dumb animals aroused by the scent of a woman; close proximity is an open call to an entanglement of bodies in heat. This simplistic stereotype of male and female is not wholly incongruous with the ambiguous, improbable plot line. Julie Kohler, the bride, while not left at the alter, is left a widow minutes after the ceremony, her new husband falling dead on the church steps, killed by a shot gun blast from out of nowhere. Her devastation is total. Dissuaded from suicide by her mother, she plots a vendetta against those responsible for the killing. Whether… or even how… she learns of the circumstances behind her husband's death, or discovers the identities of the five men responsible…is never explained. She goes about her business of being a femme fatale killing machine programmed for revenge. This is a silly, self-indulgent offering from that most self-indulgent of French New Wave film directors, Francois Truffaut.

Rodrigo Amaro The main problem when you want to pay tribute to someone you admire in films is risking yourself to not put the other person qualities and neither yours in it, and in the end a lack of identity is what you get from this tribute. I'm not saying that "La Mariée était en Noir" ("The Bride Wore Black") isn't a good film or that it's not directed by a talented man like François Truffaut but what we see in this film is something that doesn't sound or look like none of his works and don't even get close to the thrills the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock gave us in his classics, and this is Truffaut's tribute to the man.Jeanne Moreau is Julie, the bride of the title who's on a quest for revenge against five men behind the murder of her future husband during her wedding ceremony. The plot sounds very familiar now after Tarantino's "Kill Bill" series of films, and he claims never heard of this film before. There's plenty of differences in both stories, obviously, but both are very good films.As mentioned, Truffaut pays a tribute to Hitchcock, not only in this being a film of suspense but also working with composer Bernard Herrmann in the musical score, and some elements, sequences and plans created by the master. The film is quite good, has decent performances but it also has some problems too. Herrmann's music is overused and doesn't add nothing to the story; the screenplay is interesting but flawed, never explaining to us how on earth Julie managed to track down these guys, and despite some great revelations as the plot unfolds (when the woman discovers what really happened with her husband) those surprises aren't enough to make us feel intrigued by the story since the heroine is too perfect, nothing goes wrong with her, her plans always seems to work (lack of surprises on this field) and the guys she's after are too soft, there's no evil on them but the way things moves there's no way they could be evil. A little bit of instinct and self defense issues on them would work here but they're so weak. On bowing his head to a great director, Truffaut made a film where's very difficult to see himself, his ingredients or Hitch. Although many actors of his habitual collaborations are present like Moreau ("Jules et Jim"), Michael Lonsdale ("Baisers Volés"), Jean-Claude Brialy ("The 400 Blows"), Charles Denner ("The Man Who Loved Women") among others, and some qualities in style of filmmaking it's very difficult to see his sense of humor, his great sense of rhythm while conducing dramatic scenes, since most of them become very exhaustive to watch or even a cameo role just like great Alfred used to do. The great thing about "The Bride Wore Black" is the fact of being a good film as usual in Truffaut's filmography, never disappoints (just a little). Totally watchable. 8/10

blanche-2 Jeanne Moreau is the bride in "The Bride Wore Black," a 1968 film directed by Francois Truffaut. It's a Hitchcockian homage, with innuendos of that director's work throughout. Moreau is a woman who marries her childhood sweetheart, but as they leave the church, he is shot and killed. She sets out to avenge his death. More of the story unfolds with each murder.This is a very stylish, mesmerizing film with a score by Bernard Hermann, who did so many scores for Hitchcock. This score reminds me of "Vertigo" - in fact, the film reminds me of "Vertigo" more than other Hitchcock films: the opening scene at the window is reminiscent of Stewart and his partner chasing the man in the beginning of "Vertigo"; the flashbacks as Moreau remembers what happened that fateful day, as when Kim Novak goes back to her room and writes to Stewart; the portrait that looks like Moreau in the artist's studio - shades of the Carlotta portrait.As others have pointed out, "The Bride Wore Black" asks us to make some leaps in logic, otherwise known as plot holes. The biggest is how the Moreau character knew whom to go after. I could have lived with the others and somehow justified them in my own mind, but that's a biggie. The twist ending is both cold-blooded and remarkable.The charismatic actress Jeanne Moreau is perfectly cast as a determined, cold woman with one goal. Her character is clever, attractive, and as determined as they come.An excellent film that keeps the viewer engrossed throughout. It was wonderful to see it on TCM after not seeing it for many years. I wish it were available on DVD.