[The Bride Wore Black] is a good exercise, a faithful tribute and, unhappily, not a very good Truffaut film.

For anyone else, any Hollywood hack turning his hand to elegant suspense, this would be an enjoyable romp through fairly familiar territory: mysterious woman … sets out to avenge the murder of her husband. But Truffaut either does not understand or is not comfortable with the psychological and dramatic tensions implicit in such a story….

It is perhaps unfair to belabor Truffaut for making a straight suspense film, but the real trouble is that there isn't any suspense and the comedy isn't funny. This just isn't Truffaut territory…. Julie in Bride is a slightly overweight middle-aged babe with venom in her veins. There is no love in her, and, we feel, none in Truffaut for her. She is a vehicle for a technical exercise….

[In Bride, Truffaut] has perhaps done...