Jules et Jim (1962)

Director:

François Truffaut

Writers:

Henri-Pierre Roché (novel)
François Truffaut (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

23 January 1962 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Decades of a love triangle concerning two friends and an impulsive woman.

Plot Keywords:

Fatal Attraction | Nouvelle Vague | Adulterous Wife | Revolver | Promiscuity

Awards:

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 3 wins

Cast

Jeanne Moreau	...	Catherine
Oskar Werner	...	Jules (as Oscar Werner)
Henri Serre	...	Jim
Vanna Urbino	...	Gilberte
Boris Bassiak	...	Albert (as Bassiak)
Anny Nelsen	...	Lucie
Sabine Haudepin	...	Sabine, la petite
Marie Dubois	...	Thérèse
Michel Subor	...	Récitant / Narrator (voice)

Also Known As:

Jules and Jim (UK) (USA)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | German | English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG (DVD rating) | Portugal:M/16 (DVD re-rating) | Portugal:M/12 (re-rating) (1975) | South Korea:15 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Hong Kong:IIA | Portugal:17 (original rating) | Sweden:15 | Sweden:7 (re-release: 2003) | UK:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Alpes-Maritimes, France

Company:

Les Films du Carrosse

Trivia:

When Jim first visits Jules' home in Austria, Catherine shows him a picture of Jules costumed as Mozart. Oskar Werner, the actor who plays Jules, also portrayed Mozart in an earlier film.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Jim arrives by train at Jim and Catherine's house in Germany, a shot from the air depicts a French (SNCF) train. When the train arrives in the station in the next shot, the SNCF logo is hidden from sight.

Quotes:

Jim: What is it?
Catherine: Sulfuric acid, for the eyes of men who tell lies.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Afgrunden (2003) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Le Tourbillon

A breathless film about time.

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.