Foreign Film Friday

Day 8

As mentioned in my first post, I love just about every kind of movie, including foreign films. I know that not everyone is a fan of these particular films, and I can understand why. I mean, you have to read all those pesky subtitles, which can be distracting because you focus all of your attention on the bottom of the screen and not on what is actually happening in the movie. And how about the plot? Most people are used to seeing a movie where boy meets girl and they fall in love and live happily ever after; but how about a foreign film where boy meets “Death” and they play chess together?! What the heck is that all about?!

Some might say that a person only watches foreign films in order to seem more intellectual, more cultured, more refined and is really just being a pretentious pain in the neck! Well, I know I am not an intellectual and I would never be mistaken for being cultured or refined. I just happen to have watched some foreign films and enjoyed them. I haven’t minded the fact that there are subtitles to read; in fact, I prefer watching any movie with the subtitles on, even when the movie is in English.

Anyway, here is a favorite foreign film that I recently watched:

The Bride Wore Black (1968)

This French film was made by Francois Truffaut and is an homage to Alfred Hitchcock (one of my favorite filmmakers), right down to the score by Bernard Herrmann (who scored some of Hitchcock’s best films, like Psycho and North By Northwest). The film is about a woman named Julie Kohler (played by Jeanne Moreau) whose husband is killed on her wedding day, right outside of the church after the ceremony (gee, doesn’t anybody just throw rice anymore?!). Grief-stricken, Julie considers suicide but then decides to exact revenge on those responsible for her husband’s death. There were 5 men involved in the killing of Julie’s husband and she plots to find each one. What I enjoyed about this movie was seeing how the widow carefully plans things out; from setting aside 5 separate piles of money (because carrying out a vendetta ain’t cheap, you know!) to keeping a list of the names of the 5 men and then crossing each name off after the person’s "untimely" death (something I have seen done many times in movies); and each death is unique and clever.

NOTE: I certainly do not condone any kind of revenge (especially when it involves murder--I do have some standards!), but I enjoy a movie about revenge. It’s a fantasy I would never consider or execute, but it makes for great entertainment!