french films > Jules et Jim

Jules et Jim

Jules et Jim

Jules et Jim

Review score: * * * * *

cast: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre, Marie Dubois, Vanna Urbino, Sabinne Haudepin, Boris Bassiak

year: 1962

colour: yes

certificate: PG

director: François Truffaut

runtime: 105

Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) met in Paris in the first decade of the 20th Century. The Austrian (Jules) and the Parisian (Jim) immediately struck a friendship of deep mutual admiration and appreciation. They immersed themselves in literature, arts, philosophy and all the luscious temptations Paris had to offer, both fleshly and aesthetic. The long skirts and prim manners of this Edwardian time could not hold back the vigour of early Bohemia. This was a brave new world, and the very city seemed to bristle with energy, confidence and potential. One night they attend a slide show of art works created in stone. The pair are immediately struck by a carving of a woman's face - the symmetry and suggestive expression being the epitome of desirable womanhood to both. And so, when they meet Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), both Jules and Jim are taken aback by her remarkable similarity to the statue. But their superficial attraction to her is rapidly extended into absolute adoration of this brightly burning butterfly who flits capriciously from moment to moment. As the two men identify themselves as Quixote and Pancho, she is Dulcinea - an elusive idea of love that utterly entrances them both. Together, the three of them form a magical bond, and their triangle forms an enchanted land around them. Jules, however, wants to have and keep this forever, and finally persuades Catherine to marry him. While this does not immediately destroy their idyll, the murder of Franz Ferdinand does, and the two men find themselves on either side of No Man's Land, terrified of killing each other.

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