This film is an excellent example of a revenge thriller which follows Julie Kohler, the bride of the title, as she exacts revenge on those responsible for her husband's death on their wedding day. We aren't immediately told what happened to make her want to kill the men concerned but learn throughout the film.

When we are first introduced to Julie Kohler we see her attempting to throw herself from a window but this suicide attempt is prevented and soon she says that she is going away. She boards a train bound for Paris but promptly gets off on the other side and walks over the tracks to the other platform. She then seeks out a man who she only knows by name and lures him to a balcony during a party she has gatecrashed. After tricking him into climbing over the rail to retrieve a scarf she has "accidentally" dropped she says her name and no more then pushes him to his death. As she proceeds through her list of targets we learn why she wants to kill them and how the people who seemingly have no connection came to kill her husband.

The film is fairly gripping and well acted, especially by Jeanne Moreau in the title role. It does have one or two plot holes, the main one being how did she learn who was responsible for her husband's death when the police hadn't found any of them. That can be forgiven though, I think as spending time on that would have detracted from the main story.

I would recommend this to anybody who likes revenge thrillers even if they don't usually like non-English films, I'd forgotten I was reading subtitles a few minutes in.

After attempting to commit suicide, the widow Julie Kohler (Jeanne Moreau) tells her mother that she will leave town. However, she stays and hunts down and executes the five men that accidentally killed her beloved husband David on the stairs of the church immediately after their wedding ceremony.

"La Mariée Était en Noir" is a simple but excellent thriller. The geniality of François Truffault develops the tragedy of the lead character Julie Kohler with only few flashbacks. Jeanne Moreau is amazing, in the role of a woman that sees her world falling apart with the stupid murder of her beloved husband, and is driven by revenge to stay alive. The conclusion with the camera focusing the security guard is fantastic. The famous "cross of legs" of Catherine Tramell in "Basic Instinct" was probably inspired in the shy one of Julie Kohler in the police department. "The Bride" of "Kill Bill" is also inspired in this classic French movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Noiva Estava de Preto" ("The Bride Was In Black")

Note: on 06 December 2010, I saw this film again on DVD.

While I felt pretty lukewarm about some of the more famous Truffaut's films (such as Jules and Jim and The 400 Blows),this film grabbed my attention and delivered great performances and exceptional writing throughout.

The film begins with a mysterious women arriving at a large party. She ingratiates herself to a gentleman there and walks out onto the apartment's balcony. Suddenly, she kills him and quietly vanishes from the party! Then, as the film unfolds she continues to dispatch specific men throughout the countryside. Why she is doing this is unclear until the latter part of the movie and I liked that because the viewer was both amazed at her inventiveness and viciousness yet perplexed as to WHY. The "why" I will leave to you to discover when you see the movie yourself--but do see it if at all possible.

Although not as good as this film, I also recommend you other Truffaut films, such as The Last Metro, The Wild Child or even the bizarrely stylistic Fahrenheit 451