JULES AND JIM Movie Review

Jules et Jim

For his third feature, François Truffaut selected an autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roché about the complicated relationship between two men and the woman they both love. Jules and Jim opens just prior to the outbreak of World War I, presenting us with the friendship between the reserved German, Jules (Oskar Werner), and the extroverted Frenchman, Jim (Henri Serre). When they meet the blazing, irresistible Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), their lives become more complex yet remain joyous; following the two men's service—on different sides—in the war, their lives all take a decidedly darker, far more melancholy path. Jules and Jim, a movie that's absolutely alive, minute to minute, is a triumph of intuitive filmmaking by a director who proudly and wisely refuses to rationalize his characters' every move. The passion of these three is understood by the viewer; when that passion spawns painful consequences, and leads to comings and goings that might seem gratuitously capricious in a less accomplished movie, we stay with them because the movie's director has formed them fully. It's a breathtaking feeling to realize, at some early point into a movie, that you've placed your absolute trust in the director; you don't know where the adventure will lead, yet you go along, and without reservation. It's no different than what Jules, Jim, and Catherine experience in the film; their instincts and desires carry them along, so when we see that passion so diminished and deflated in the scenes following World War I (which include the rise of fascism), we not only mourn for them, but for ourselves. Each time Jules and Jim begins, we marvel again at its ability to carry us off into memories of our own youthful, enthusiastic passions. Each time we see it end, we grieve; not just for the friends lost on screen or for the lost joys of their youth, but for our own knowledge that all joys—whether friendship, love, cinema, or life—are bound to end.

NEXT STOP … Shoot the Piano Player, The Soft Skin, Two English Girls

1962 104m/B FR Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre, Marie DuBois, Vanna urbino; D: Francois Truffaut; W: Jean Gruault, Francois Truffaut; C: Raoul Coutard; M: Georges Delerue. VHS, LV, Letterbox HMV, FOX