Truffaut was one of the most astute interpreters of Hitchcock, the author of an endlessly rich book based on an interview with him. But in true New Wave tradition he found his most profound critical/interpretive tool to be the cinema itself. In this Cornell Woolrich adaptation, Jeanne Moreau is the bride whose pleasure is cut down by a nuptial-day assassination. Like a reverse/perverse Snow White, she sets about avenging herself on the five men responsible for her groom's death, entering into their lives to fascinate, terrify, and ultimately dwarf them. Truffaut has described this film as his homage to Hitchcock but, as observers have noted, it is Hitchcock treated in the manner of Renoir. “The movie is technically a suspense and horror film-a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock…. But Truffaut is such a poetic filmmaker that the film turns around and becomes, not at all Hitchcockian, but a gentle comedy and one of the few plausible and strange love stories in a long time” (Renata Adler, New York Times).