Truffaut was one of William Irish's greatest fans;he wrote a preface for an edition of the American writer's short stories.Not only he directed this movie but he also adapted "la sirène du mississipi" .There's just one problem.Irish's absolute tragic side totally eludes Truffaut.A critic wrote that this writer's endings did not put an end to horror,but prolongated it.Nothing comes close to Irish's desperate universe here.Jean Delannoy Truffaut despised a lot,did a better job with "obsession" .Jeanne Moreau is not Irishian at all.She's too self-confident,too full of joie de vivre to portray such a character.I've always dreamed of what Alexandra Stewart -who plays a small part as a teacher here- could have done with it.Obviously,Truffaut's directing is a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock,but I'm not sure that the Hitchcockian treatment was adequate here.It worked in "rear window" because this movie was ,in the beginning ,one of Irish's short stories and the master could develop it as he wished,but in the full length of a whole novel,the treatment destroys the emotion and the "lost in advance" feeling which emanate from this tormented soul-Irish spent all his miserable life in an hotel room with his mother;an homosexual,he never found true love-.The cast is appealing but most of the actors are wasted ,be they Michel Bouquet or Jean -Claude Brialy.Of course ,it is watchable,there's some suspense,but if you're searching for Irish's world,you must move on.
Review of The Bride Wore Black
