art isn't about "identification"
Author: willtato from United States
4 March 2005
Why do so many people need to "get into the characters" "care about the characters" "identify with the characters", to enjoy or appreciate a great film? I think it's a type of selfishness, as shallow as the urge to reject an outcome one doesn't like. Examples: "I know it's good; but the ending was too down" (Lolita), or a woman I once heard criticize Unbearable Lightness of Being because one of the main characters is a womanizer who doesn't repent or have justice rendered to him. Ironically, in Jules and Jim, we see a woman who is a "manizer" whom some viewers are appalled or put off by).
Jules and Jim features three characters whose unrealism is beyond question - Truffaut himself might comment on how Catherine fascinated the other two, but I doubt very much he would claim any of the three to be "realistic". I think the whole thing is a fable, and therefore the three are more like archetypes. The beauty isn't really the story, but HOW the story unfolds, and, most importantly how it is told VISUALLY: the breeziness interrupted by dramatic outbursts (flames, jumping into the river, death by drowning), the exploration of love as a fleeing of tediousness and predictability, the hinting (yes there is a type of love between Jules and Jim, though not a homo erotic one) that friendship is always deeper than romantic love, the beautiful flowing and editing of sequences, for example: where all three go bicycling in the country.
The duty of film is to tell a story in moving images, to take advantage of the things that specifically make cinema different from drama or literature - moving the spectator about in space and time, which cannot be done in any other art form in quite the same way. But nothing about this movie is conventional, and people looking for "resolution", or a someone getting their comeuppances, or even a character learning more about himself must look elsewhere for gratification.
Time and revisionist critics have tried to tarnish the gleam of Truffaut's final masterpiece - citing its apparent misogyny and apoliticism; but for some of us, 'Jules et Jim' is the unforgettable film that opened the gates to both European film, and the great masters of American cinema like Hitchcock, Hawks and Ray.
'Jules et Jim' is, along with 'Citizen Kane', THE vindication of the pleasures of cinematic form: the first half especially, in its rush of narrative registers and technical exuberance, is unparalleled in modern film. This isn't mere trickery - the use of paintings, books, plays, dreams, conversations, documentary footage, etc., as well as the different ways of telling a story through film, all point to the movie's theme - how do you represent people and the world in art without destroying them? Or is art the only to save people and life from extinction?
The foregrounding of theatricality, acting, disguises, pseudonyms, games, works-within-the-work, all point to the high modernism in which the film is set, when the old certainties about identity and place were being destroyed by the Great War. In fact the film could be considered Cubist in the way it uses film form to splice up and rearrange images, space, characters, viewpoints.
Truffaut's film is a beautiful elegy about time: the historical time heading towards destruction in the shape of the Nazis, and the circular time of love, obsession and art. These times struggle in the film's structure, history zipping past years in the framing, Parisian sections, and days stretching out interminably in the central rural rondelay.
Far from being misogynistic, the film places Catherine's speech about 'grains of sand' at its philosophical heart. AND she's played by Jeanne Moreau, the most honest and human of all great actresses.
The French have a remarkable tendency of creating free-flowing, poetic movies that transport this particular art form into subtle, poignant flights of fancy and nowhere is this more evident than in Jules et Jim, which embodies the beauty of French cinema.
I believe that Truffaut is the most poetic filmmaker in cinematic history. Jules et Jim is his finest moment and, in the ever fluctuating relationships between the Oskar Werner, Henri Serre and Jeanne Moreau characters, we are allowed to be taken along on a refreshing, beatific ride through the passionate simplicity of love and friendship.
The leisurely philosophical musings of the two men in Jules et Jim are counterbalanced by Moreau's bright, airy amorality. She brings about a radicalism and sense of unpredictability in the movie that is nonetheless charming and utterly innocent and benign. Moreau's instinctive will makes her out to be a selfish attention-seeker but without that this movie would not be so surprising and liberating. Truffaut's does not stick to a rigid narrative form, like many '50s and '60s French New Wave directors, and he allows the stream of consciousness dialogue and the ever-changing fortunes of Moreau's erratic relationships with the men to dictate the structure. Jules et Jim has a certain clarity of vision.
French love stories are often based upon dialogue that is rife with throwaway witticisms, perceptive trivial observations, and explosive utterances of love or despair, and Jules et Jim is no different. It can drift along tranquilly until a sudden unexpected change of mood occurs and everything is turned on its head. Moreau's leaping into the river after a civilised night out at the theatre is a delightfully liberating moment, utterly pointless yet still gleefully uninhibited. My finest memory is the heavenly ditty by Moreau which sums up both her and the movie's personality and atmosphere. So simple, so sublime, and always tugging away in the most sumptuous manner at the heartstrings. I don't think I have ever got that tune out of my head.
If you want to experience the sheer majesty of cinema, Jules et Jim just has to be seen. Not only is it bright and breezy but it has tragic moments of pathos as well. There is a surprise at every turn, almost always caused by the Moreau character, and such is the freedom of her spirit and the freedom of the movie's spirit, you can forgive her every action and fickle about-turns. There is no sense of permanence with her. Jules et Jim only confirms my belief that the French make cinema's greatest romances. Utterly natural, hardly ever contrived, and so cool and graceful.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Love and friendship could not be better combined in one piece
Author: greekhero from Russian Federation
25 June 2011
This was my third movie by Truffaut I saw and enjoyed a great deal. He truly was a genius story-teller. And this time it is about friendship and love, the things that make us feel happy and satisfied with living. One should learn to appreciate them, cherish them, care for them and protect them from fading away. But what is friendship anyway, how do you define it, describe it, measure it and show it? I found one of the best examples in this masterpiece. Two friends always enjoyed the company of each other and never got bored of each other. What is love then? Again another best example of so called true love without being possessive and egoistic, in this case accepting no matter what the choice and attitude of beloved one.
Nothing is constant in our lives, it starts, evolves and eventually ends. Anyway, there is something magical about Truffaut's movies.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Irony, Thy Name is Truffaut
Author: TheFilmFreak1 from Australia
22 May 2011
The one way to describe Francois Truffaut's 'Jules and Jim' would be to declare it a 'Wuthering Heights' adaptation sans Heathcliff. Another way to describe it would be to declare it a work resplendent in irony and the artifice of love (something with which the French are particularly familiar). Yet, regardless of synopses, 'Jules and Jim' is among a rare class of film that utilizes beautifully poetic editing and photography for the paradoxical purpose of cold, pragmatic storytelling, and utilizes it well.
'Jules and Jim' tells the story of two friends (take a wild guess what their names are) who simultaneously fall head over heels for Catherine, a rather sadistic tease whose capricious romantic affections create a minor rivalry between the pair. The fact that much of the film takes place after the First World War, in which the two fought on OPPOSITE SIDES, doesn't help the situation.
The plot comes off as a predictable melodrama, and it is, but what makes 'Jules and Jim' so wonderful is the ironic way in which it recounts this melodrama. Being a French New Wave production, there are of course lots of jarringly undramatic edits, shots, and voice-overs (the film has quite possibly the world's most deadpan narrator), all of which contrast beautifully with the fatuous love triangle at the centre of the film that ultimately spirals into tragedy. If it weren't for the levity of Truffaut's storytelling and his own claim that the film was a "hymn to life", one could swear the film was deeply misanthropic.
As it is, though, 'Jules and Jim' is more a celebration of the momentary bliss of youthful love and vitality, acknowledging at the same time how clinging to those things can often lead to disillusionment and destruction. In other words, somebody needs to show this film to Madonna.
'New Wave' films may have an inconvenient propensity to polarise, but if by hearing a man with an exaggerated monotone (please forgive my tendency toward oxy-morons) indifferently regaling you with a tale of absurd melodrama you do not want to thank the Lord God (or whichever deity you may reverently pester) for the miracle of cinema, then you should be ashamed to consider yourself a cinephile.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
One of the most inspired films ever
Author: adrian290357 from Portugal
9 April 2009
Truffaut is one of my favourite directors and Jules et Jim one of my favourite films. As Jeanne Moreau recalls in an interview re her relationship with Truffaut at the time (they were briefly in love), this was a movie no one wanted to finance, that she had to help finance herself with money she had just scored from her latest film success (even her car was used to carry sets and other filming equipment) and which depended to a large extent on conditions on the ground and inspiration on the part of all, especially Truffaut, at any given time.
Thus, creation happened as inspiration came to Truffaut, Moreau and the crew and as Moreau remarks, the whole movie feels and flows like a song (she does sing the theme song, rather well at that too!).
Jules and Jim are star crossed friends. They have similar tastes and are ready to do anything for each other but being German and French they end up on different trenches in the war. They have imagined and then seen the bust of the ideal feminine beauty and and proceed to look for her in every nook and cranny, ultimately finding her in the shape of Moreau at a function.
Moreau is luminous in her role as Catherine that would have earned her permanent recognition if she had done nothing else. She is not just beautiful or alluring - she is Woman itself in all its complexities, falling in and out of love, holding on or letting go as is her wanton. There is a moment in the film when she does not get the attention of the two men because they are playing a game and immediately she demands attention and does not stop until she gets it.
Truffaut said on more than one occasion that his relationship with his mother (a rather distant one, reportedly) had had an impact on his relationship with other women but in Jules et Jim he is able to portray the female of the species with a depth and an understanding such as I had never witnessed before or have since.
Truffaut's direction is peerless in its acuity and sensitivity, and it is greatly aided by some of the loveliest photography ever. In addition, he extracts superlative performances from all three leads. Oskar Werner's performance is deft beyond words. Henri Serre reminds me of Daniel Day-Lewis with a steely performance to match.
As art lovers, they fall in love with a bust of a woman and look for her until they find Catherine. Is this Catherine an echo of Cathy in Wuthering Heights? Serre might be the Heathcliff while Werner sounds more like an undecided Hamlet knowing he cannot hang on to his Ophelia. The passions at work in the film more than match that of the Bronte novel's characters and, of course, that of the lukewarm Dane.
As lovers of the flesh, Jim has a child by Catherine and Jules her love - but it carries a price. The ending is a subtle mix of irony, sadness, insightful observation and even a touch of the clownish with an unsuitably dressed Jim walking away with the ashes of his beloved lover and friend... much as Hamlet might have walked away with a skull or two.
There is a lyrical quality to this film that I believe has never been surpassed. Judging from Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" -- which borrows shamelessly from the ideas of "Jules et Jim" -- it will take real genius and a many months of sustained inspiration to surpass it. Given the current never ending supply of mass produced flicks, I doubt it will ever be matched let alone surpassed...
"Jules et Jim" is a most intelligent film and a privilege to watch. If it were down to me, it would score 11 out of 10.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Wow!
Author: naun
12 December 2006
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This is the first film I've seen by Truffaut, and it's like nothing I've seen before. The deftness with which he captures both the absurdity and the gravity of the evanescent moment takes your breath away. Here the camera swerves to give you a glimpse of a black car, and you understand that it is an omen of death; there we see the lovers bicycling on a country lane, and as you catch sight of the back of the woman's head, you understand that in this moment of delighted freedom, the man's longing for her is eternal. The use of music, light and lilting, is magically apt, always with the feeling of a half-remembered tune from another time in your life. The film sets out as a comedy, and later the heartache is more piercing for being shot through with sweetness and light. In hindsight, maybe all those buddy movies from the sixties and seventies, movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, owed something to this film, but they never began to match its effortless delicacy and style and depth. In an interview on the Criterion DVD Truffaut's cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, quotes a saying the French apparently have that "the silence after Mozart is still Mozart". The comparison is apt.
The most important of French new wave
Author: fastlegtheory from India
30 May 2014
Jules and Jim unfolds just as if you are reading a great book on romance and about the people it revolves around.
This is an influential French new wave film about a love triangle that involves two men and an impulsive woman. Much has already been said about its breathless pace of narration in its early moments to establish the friendship of Jules and Jim and the women they encounter, to which I couldn't agree more.
What I found genuinely absorbing about the film was that how Truffaut was able to capture the precise absurdity of a woman's nature. The woman, Catherine, whose primary motive is to juggle between the men in her life. There is Jules, there is Jim and then there's the occasional lover Albert, all of whom fall in love with her. After living for some time in Paris, Jules takes her to Austria to marry her.
Catherine is one of the fascinating women you will ever see in film. Despite the title of the film, to me, this is Catherine's story. Played by Jeanne Moreau with dazzling coldness, Catherine pulls the strings on her men with formidable manipulation. The sad thing is that Jules, the man who loves her so much that he couldn't do a thing about it except to watch his world fall apart right in front of his eyes. After the wartime separation, when Jim visits the now-married couple who live in Austria, apparently happy with a child, note how the narrative takes turns. After a warm welcome, Jules reveals to his friend about the unhappy marriage and asks him to consider marrying her without thinking him of an obstacle, so that he could at least still get to visit them and see her every day. That's the sad part. Another aspect that's remarkably great in the film is the passage of time. Truffaut manages to give us an account of more than two decades of this three people's lives, inside two hours.
The film's score by Georges Delerue is one of the finest I have ever come across. It creates a sense of time and place to the film's setting. I bet you can't refrain from keep humming the tune of the song 'Le Tourbillon'.
The early times of their lives are the most magical when they were truly happy leading a sort of Bohemian life with not a thing to care about in the world. In one beautiful scene, Truffaut shows them living in a cottage, talking as they idly emerge out into their separate balconies on a fine morning. A good portion of the film is superbly handled in the exchange of letters. Towards the end, when Jim decides against to live with her, saying he's going to marry Gilberte, Catherine goes so far as to pull a gun on him, from which Jim escapes. Moments like these are the most constitutive of Catherine's unpredictable nature.
Then there is the climax when the three run into each other again for one final time which concludes with another one of Catherine's tricks, only this time she intends to scar her man for all eternity. It's the end this story most satisfyingly deserves. If women are perceived as a complete mystery, I would rather have them not solved. If it does come to happen, the world might lose much of its fascination.
Free Love without Restrictions or Restrictive Love without Freedom
Author: Ilpo Hirvonen from Finland
16 May 2011
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
François Truffaut was a true romantic of the French New Wave and just as Rohmer's, so are Truffaut's films easily accessible, compared to the experimental works of Resnais, Godard and Rivette. He was never into making opaque, ambiguous films but multidimensional and romantic stories about love and freedom, loneliness and intimacy, life and death. Jules et Jim was his third feature-length picture and it was based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roché which truly fascinated Truffaut. He thought that if he once made a film, it would be an adaption of Jules et Jim. From an unknown novel a mighty piece of cinema was born. A film which broke a lot of taboos in the 1960's, and is still one of the most beloved films of the Nouvelle Vague.
The characters, Jules and Jim complete each other, as the film suggests by comparing them to Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. One day they become acquainted with Catherine, a goddess to whom both of them fall in love. Time goes by and Catherine gets married with Jules. They get a daughter, Sabine but the war separates them. After the war, Jules returns to his home and Jim pays a visit after a long while. Catherine and Jim fall in love with each other, and decide to lead a life together. However, there is a third man as well, Albert who is also adored by Catherine. Catherine is unable to choose between these three men and wants them all, at the same time, neglecting the codes of bourgeois behavior.
The story happens in the years from 1912 to 1933, and as a historical film it is also a description of the time it was made in, the early 1960's: The Cuban Missile Crisis, French generals wanted to overthrow the president Charles De Gaulle, John F. Kennedy was elected as the president of the United States and The Berlin Wall was built. During the time there were a lot of protests against The Algerian War which several new wave directors attended as well. It was also the time of sexual liberalization: the position of woman was rising as they went to work, birth-control pill was allowed and several illegal abortions were committed; until it was finally passed. To this period of transition Truffaut's film Jules et Jim fits perfectly.
Catherine represents a woman, an adored manifestation, created for all men. She's a mythical character who is hard to get. She's a timeless concept which even flashes on Albert's photograph of the statue's face. Catherine is completely aware of her divinity and therefore she acts like it: she takes full responsibility for it, and feels that she needs to have control over every single situation. She doesn't settle for partial faithfulness, except on her own behalf. Catherine refuses to choose between the three men: she wants them all, at the same time, and for Truffaut this kind of dogmatism is the straight road to death and desperation.
Eventually, Jim starts to understand Catherine which she doesn't like at all. She doesn't want to be completely understood. So she takes Jim into an unending relationship which is final and absolute; she drives a car with Jim to the sea, from a broken bridge. The character of Catherine represents the liberated woman of the 1960's and, all over Europe, cinema loved these kind of women: in Sweden, Italy and France, for example, and Jules et Jim is a picture of this time and a portrayal of the new youth. However, Truffaut's treatment of taboos is anything but conventional or regular. He hated revealing sexuality in films and loved the Hitchcockian way: showing an approaching hand, a bare leg and using elliptical narrative. He never wanted to shock people, but his own ideology on the screen just happened to stir up conversation.
The two nations, Germany and France, have fought three times in recent history: once in the late 19th century and twice in the early 20th century. There was an unending hatred between these two nations -- and this is what is so shocking about Jules et Jim: it portrays a Frenchman and a German who are best friends. They are men who don't care about borders, countries, restrictions or wars, all of which are just part of the great illusion. From one perspective this can be tied to the time the film was made in: in the 1960's the two nations found each other, the new generation was eager to live in harmony and not to remember the inconveniences of the past. But, on the other hand, Truffaut's ideological touch can be seen in the story as well. He was an anarchist, though not an activist; he hated activism. He most likely took a lot of thoughts from his cinematographic idol, Jean Renoir whose films are strongly pacifistic and anarchist. But François Truffaut said that he only wanted to tell the story of the love between three people.
The freedom of the men, portrayed in the novel, was astonishing even in the 1950's. It's a story about a woman who wants to be in a relationship without restrictions. Catherine is afraid of restricted love and when she gets married with Jules, she hopes to free herself by giving birth to Jules' child. But each time she finds herself in a dead end; and only death can set her free, which is why she kills herself and Jim. One thesis of the film is that there is no use trying to fight these restrictions of love, because love itself is restricting and captivating. This paradox of love and freedom characterizes the entire film. How love and freedom can never fit into the same relation because love is a ruthless, proprietorial thing. It doesn't let us be free or equal but without it, life isn't simply anything.
Le tourbillon de la vie
Author: luizanassif from France
24 November 2008
This is the greatest film about life. Jeanne Moreau plays the role of a woman that wants to live but can't fit herself in this world, in the normal forms of relationships. Between Jules and Jim she founds something that calms her down a little. The masterpiece of Truffaut, Jules and Jim was made over the book from Henri-Pierre Roche, who also wrote "deux anglaises et le continent", the book that Truffaut also filmed later. The incredible capacity of Henri-Pierre Roche of talking about life in such a accessible way was perfectly recreated by Truffaut, who arrived to make even a greater thing then the writer. This is one of those movies to see over and over. Specially the great scene where Catherine sings Tourbillon de la vie, which fits perfectly. A film about meetings, losings, and finally about the difficulties of finding yourself. It's the most beautiful and simple way of describing le tourbillon de la vie.
