• Director: François Truffaut
• Script: Jean Gruault, François Truffaut, based on the novel by Henri-Pierre Roché
• Photo: Raoul Coutard
• Music: Georges Delerue
• Cast: Jeanne Moreau (Catherine), Oskar Werner (Jules), Henri Serre (Jim), Vanna Urbino (Gilberte), Marie Dubois (Therèse), Boris Bassiak (Albert), Sabine Haudepin (La petite Sabine), Michel Subor (Narrator)
• Country: France
• Language: French
• Runtime: 110 min, B&W
• Aka: Jules and Jim

At the time, this was quite a daring film, because it questioned some of the basic assumptions about human relationships and offered a vision of an alternative kind of relationship.  That love and friendship can be reconciled is one of the most profound statements the film makes, although the strains and problems that can create are reflected with astonishing lucidity in the film.

The character of Catherine must have seemed quite daring as well.  Although she is enchanting (as much through her intelligence as through her good looks), she is also dangerously unpredictable and flighty.  When her two male friends exclude her from a discussion about Strindberg she throws herself into the River Seine.  When Jim tells her that she intends to marry another woman, she pulls a gun on him.  She even disappears with another man after having given birth to her daughter.

Catherine is the consummate free spirit, an extreme representation of the modern woman, constantly fighting for equality with her male counterparts.  Yet, whilst yielding to these mad impulses, she harbours a need for love and security, which she hopes to find in Jules.  Unfortunately Jules cannot satisfy her passion for adventure.  The two can never be reconciled and in the end she destroys everything, even the beautiful friendship of Jules and Jim which has offered her sanctuary.

The film is beautifully realised and must represent Truffaut’s greatest achievement.  The playfulness of the three central characters is reflected in some equally playful and imaginative photography and editing. The film is replete with many of the cinematographic devices associated with the New Wave directors: freeze-frames, jump-cuts, expansive camera movements (often swirling to give a dizzying a roundabout impression).

Partly out of necessity (to reduce the film to an acceptable length), Truffaut employs some very aggressive, tight editing, which makes the first half of the film incredibly fast moving and deliciously entertaining.  The pace slows in the latter half as we are drawn into the intimacy of the love triangle.  This is where Truffaut shows his true genius as a director, evoking some remarkable performances from his actors as he draws out the interminable human dilemmas which the situation creates.

Raould Coutard's beautiful and fluid photography is accompanied by an equally beautiful and evocative score from Georges Delerue (a favourite of the New Wave directors).  Both the images and the music capture the subtle changes in mood to almost devastating effect.

In the role of Catherine, Jeanne Moreau is unremittingly brilliant.  The part could have been written for her – it exudes a curious blend of strong-minded independence yet childlike vulnerability that suits the actress perfectly.  As the impulsive femme fatale she is totally bewitching, but it is her scenes where she displays emotional insecurity that are the most poignant and engaging.   She sings Cyrus Bazziak’s “Le Tourbillon de la vie” as if it were the theme of her life.  (Bazziak himself appears in the film as Catherine’s third lover, Albert.)

Jules and Jim are played respectively by the celebrated Austrian stage actor Oskar Werner and the French actor Henri Serre, both comparatively unknown in France at the time.  Truffaut cast Werner having been impressed with his performance in Max Ophül’s film Lola Montès and would cast him in a lead role in his later film Farenheit 451.  Truffaut chose Serre mainly for his physical resemblance to the young Henri-Pierre Roché – tall and thin, with a deep but gentle voice.

After the commercial failure of his previous film, Tirez sur le pianiste, Truffaut was compelled to make Jules and Jim on a modest budget (often using his friends’ homes for the location scenes).  He was also determined that this should be a successful film - without another success he would find it difficult to finance future films.  As a result, he tuned his film to the tastes of the public to a greater extent than his New Wave contemporaries would ever countenance.  The ploy paid off.  But even Truffaut could not have imagined the extent of the success the film would enjoy.

Despite being initially banned in Italy and receiving an over-18 classification in France, Jules et Jim quickly became a popular and successful film, across Europe and in the United States.  It also unleashed something of a merchandising phenomenon, with Jules and Jim souvenirs suddenly hitting the shops (caps, tee-shirts, etc.).  The film not only secured François Truffaut’s position as one of the most highly regarded directors of his generation but it also made Jeanne Moreau an international star.

Today, the film is often referred to and held up as a prime example of New Wave cinema.  It is a film that cannot fail to leave its audience unmoved.  This is a uniquely perceptive and uncompromising film about life - the comedy and the tragedy, mixed together in the turbulent whirlpool of life.

© James Travers 2002

See also:
The life of François Truffaut
Les 400 coups
Tirez sur le pianiste
Farenheit 451
Baisers volés
Le Dernier métro