Directed by:
François TruffautCinematography:
Raoul CoutardComposer:
Georges DelerueCast:
Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre, Marie Dubois, Michel Subor, Jean-Louis Richard, Vanna Urbino, Sabine Haudepin, Pierre FabreVOD (3)
Plots(1)
JULES AND JIM is François Truffaut's intense, beautiful, enigmatic film about the lifelong friendship between two writers--French novelist Jim (Henri Serre) and Austrian children's author Jules (Oskar Werner)--and their mutual love for the eccentric Catherine (Jeanne Moreau). With artful black-and-white imagery, the story begins in 1920s Paris when Jules and Jim first meet and become friends. As young single men, they gallavant about Paris, chasing women or studying ancient art, always animated, curious, and charming. When they meet the equally energetic Catherine, whose impulses range from dressing up as a man to taking midnight plunges into the Seine, their circle is complete. But when World War II erupts, with Jules and Jim fighting on opposite sides, everything changes. Jules marries Catherine before going off to battle. After the war, they settle into a quiet existence in the French countryside. But Catherine is restless and unfaithful. Jim reunites with his oldest and closest friends, and Catherine makes room for him in their house, asking him to move in and become her lover. Jim complies, as he wants nothing more than to please his friend Jules, who agrees to the plan. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (3)
The only significant complaint here is the use of the narrator. The fact that he reads whole swathes of the book presents no problem at all. But the fact that he is used to impart everything from story shifts, through motives to feelings is a big problem. Sometimes this means serious side-lining of the actors. And slowing down the breakneck pace in some parts and increasing the running time a little wouldn’t have mattered at all, because like this everything happens terribly quickly. But still, a good, melancholic picture with a touch of classic Greek tragedy.
()
Love is an heavenly bitch. Perhaps the only soap opera in the history of cinema that can be celebrated as the creation of an intellectual and stylistic artist, and one of the few films that, despite its lyricism, presents the broader nature of love and friendship in a believable way, at once cheerful (the first half marked by relentless editing and ephemeral love escapades) and mysteriously tragic (the slow pace of the second half, the longer dialogues and the growing presence of an emotion that cannot be reciprocated). The female lead irritated me a lot, and the narrator's voiceover was perhaps unnecessarily revealing even when the actors, and Truffaut and Coutard would have been enough, but I still curiously waited for every next twist and looked forward to the finale, which did not disappoint and enclosed the entire relationship mosaic in an ingeniously poetic frame. And above all, even the seemingly stupid actions of the male protagonist can be understood – if you have a dream and ideal woman in your life, nothing will deter you, I am (unfortunately?) aware of that. 85%
()
No, the new wave just doesn't sit well with me, at least not in its French version. The storytelling methods are interesting, and I like how the possibilities of the medium are used, but for me, a film is always about the story first, and here I don't feel like the story is really well presented. I might prefer the original book.
()