Jules and Jim
d. Francois Truffaut, 1961
Francois Truffaut's 1961 masterpiece, Jules and Jim, is one of the most beautiful movies ever made. In my opinion, it is also the best of all the films that came out of the French New Wave, and the best motion picture of the 1960's.
The film is about two friends, Jules and Jim, who meet in 1912. Jules (Oscar Werner) is Austrian and Jim (Henri Serre) is French. The opening shots show them talking to each other and the voice-over narration (the best of any film I've seen) tells the audience that they translated poetry and taught each other their languages. Jim has more luck with girls than Jules, who is introduced to many by his friend. At one point during the first sequences, the narration announces that "taking Jim's advice, Jules decided to finally take up professionals, with no luck." This is followed by the shot of a woman's leg with a watch around her ankle, and no further explanation. It is narrative freedom like that that you do not see in many modern films, and one of the main reasons I love Jules and Jim so much is the way the story flows.
The film covers more than 20 years in 105 minutes, and does it in such a way that by the end of my first viewing I knew I hadn't gathered half of what I was supposed to. Jules and Jim really gets going when Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) is introduced. Jules and Jim meet her at a small gathering arranged by Jules' cousin. Catherine starts a relationship with Jules, and Jim spends time with them and they have a great time together. In one particularly wonderful scene, they go to the theatre together. Afterwards, arguing about the female protagonist of the play, Catherine jumps into a river to the astonishment of Jules and Jim. This scene establishes her as the engine that will drive the rest of the movie.
When World War I breaks out, Jules and Jim are sent to fight with their respective militaries. The narration (both by the narrator and in a letter by Jules) tells the audience that they both fear they might kill each other while fighting. Luckily, they are both still alive by the end of the war. Jules and Catherine are married by then and urge Jim to come and visit them, for he is considering marrying his own girlfriend, Gilberte.
Once there, they all spent some nice time together. Jim meets their daughter, Sabine, and they all seem rather happy. This continues until Jules announces, to Jim's surprise, that Catherine is not completely happy with the marriage, and has run away with lovers once before ("three that I know of," he tells Jim). Ultimately, Jules knows that Catherine will never be content with anything, but he loves her enough to believe they can make it. Eventually, Catherine takes a liking to Jim (who has liked her for some time), and he moves in with them.
The three of them, and Sabine, live in the country home. Jules believes this is best because he can stay close to Catherine, who he thinks will be happy with Jim. However, as by now the audience expects, Catherine is not content with Jim for a long time, she gets bored and wishes to go back with Jules. This is the on-going pattern that drives the film, and to say more about the story would dimish a first viewing.
The film's effect is largely due to its cinematography, by Raoul Coutard, who photographs the film in elegant shots. The way Jules and Jim looks is a departure from other New Wave films like, say, Godard's Breathless, whose fast-paced jump shots were also intriguing, if not as fascinating as Truffaut's direction. The score by Georges Deleure is one of my favorite in all the cinema, and it's more of a combination of wonderful images and music than just those two isolated elements.
Ultimately, Jules and Jim is about two guys who spent some of the earlier years of their lives in wonderful harmony. Their inability to realize that that kind of situation would not carry on into their adult lives led them to dark places, with Catherine as the catalyst.
However sad the film may be, it is still certainly one of the most enthralling and uplifting films the cinema has ever produced.
