Directed by François Truffaut
Written by Jean-Louis Richard & François Truffaut
Original novel by Cornell Woolrich

Bastille Day calls for a film by François Truffaut. My choice is a classic yet seldom viewed tale of revenge: The Bride Wore Black. This tiny wonder has jagged edges and a wicked sense of humor. It has inspired countless filmmakers (including Brian de Palma, who influenced Quentin Tarantino), and was itself inspired by the suspense movies of Alfred Hitchcock. The Bride Wore Black was originally a novel by god of noir Cornell Woolrich, who also wrote Rear Window.

Screen legend Jeanne Moreau plays Julie, who is suicidal when we first see her but soon rallies and decides to go on an extended vacation. Julie's idea of a vacation would delight Aileen Wuornos: Wherever she appears, bad things happen to men who are not quite good, but surely can't be bad enough to deserve their fate.

Glamorous Julie bewitches men with her charm and her fashion sense. The costumes for then forty-year-old Moreau accentuate her odd beauty. This is a woman who does not need youth, to complete her mission. She allows herself to slip into an emotional coma from time to time, only stirring again as she remembers how to please a man, and bring him along, and then do whatever she wants with him.

According to Wikipedia, Truffaut was not proud of The Bride Wore Black. If that's true, it's a shame. The film is cruel and delightfully malicious, with no redemption, even in the flashbacks that show us what set Julie on her deadly adventures. Even when we know the truth, it doesn't justify the action. And that is so rare that I cherish it wherever I find it.

Vive le France!