Jules and Jim
Encyclopedia
Jules and Jim is a 1962
French film
directed by François Truffaut
based on Henri-Pierre Roché
's 1953 semi-autobiographical novel
about his relationship with writer Franz Hessel
and his wife, Helen Grund.
Truffaut came across the book in the mid-1950s whilst browsing through some secondhand books in Paris
and later befriended the elderly Roché. The author approved of the young director's attempt to translate his work to another medium.
The soundtrack by Georges Delerue
was named as one of the "10 best soundtracks" by Time
magazine in its "All Time 100 Movies" list.
The film ranked 46 in Empire
magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.
in several different parts of France
, Austria, and Germany
. Jules (Oskar Werner
) is a shy writer from Austria
who forges a friendship with the more extroverted Jim (Henri Serre
). They share an interest in the world of the arts and the Bohemian
lifestyle. At a slide show early in the movie, they become entranced with a statue of a goddess and its serene smile.
After encounters with several women, they meet the free-spirited, capricious Catherine (Jeanne Moreau
), a doppelgänger
for the statue with the serene smile. Although she begins a relationship with Jules, both men are affected by her presence and her attitude toward life. A few days before the declaration of war, Jules and Catherine move to Austria to get married. Both men serve during the war; however, they serve on the opposing sides, and each fears throughout the conflict that he might have killed the other.
After the wartime separation, Jim visits, and later stays with, Jules and Catherine in Austria. Jules and Catherine have a little daughter, Sabine, but the marriage is not a happy one. Catherine torments and punishes Jules with numerous affairs, and she tells Jim that she once left Jules and their daughter for six months. She flirts with and attempts to seduce Jim, who has never forgotten her. Jules, desperate that Catherine might leave him forever, gives his blessing for Jim to marry Catherine so that he may continue to visit them and see her. For a while, the four of them live happily together in the same chalet in Austria, until tensions between Jim and Catherine arise because of their inability to have a child. Jim leaves Catherine and returns to Paris. After several exchanges of letters between Catherine and Jim, the relationship is broken off when Jules writes to inform Jim that his and Catherine's unborn baby has miscarried.
After a time, Jim runs into Jules in Paris. He finds that Jules and Catherine have returned to France. Catherine attempts to win Jim back, but he rebuffs her, saying he is going to marry Gilberte. Furious, she pulls a gun on him, but he wrestles it away and flees. He later encounters Jules and Catherine in a famous (at that time) movie theater, the Studio des Ursulines.
The three of them visit a park, and after lunch, Catherine invites Jim to get into her car because she has something to show him. After telling Jules to watch them, she proceeds to drive the car off the broken arch of a bridge, killing them both. Jules is left to dispose of the ashes of his friends.
, Jules and Jim is an inventive encyclopedia of the language of cinema that incorporates newsreel
footage, photographic stills, freeze frame
s, panning
shots, wipes, masking
, dolly shots, and voiceover narration (by Michel Subor
). Truffaut's cinematographer
was Raoul Coutard, a frequent collaborator with Jean-Luc Godard
, who employed the latest lightweight cameras to create an extremely fluid film style. For example, some of the postwar scenes were shot using cameras mounted on bicycles. The evocative musical score is by Georges Delerue
. One song, "Le Tourbillon" ("The Whirlwind"), which sums up the turbulence of the lives of the three main characters, became a popular hit. The dialogue is predominantly in French
, with occasional lines in German
and one line in English
.
Jeanne Moreau
incarnates the style of the Nouvelle Vague actress. The critic Ginette Vincindeau has defined this as, "beautiful, but in a kind of natural way; sexy, but intellectual at the same time, a kind of cerebral sexuality, — this was the hallmark of the nouvelle vague woman." Though she isn't in the film's title Catherine is "the structuring absence. She reconciles two completely opposed ideas of femininity".
1962 in film
The year 1962 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May - The Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards are officially founded by the Taiwanese government....
French film
Cinema of France
The Cinema of France comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of France or by French filmmakers abroad.France is the birthplace of cinema and was responsible for many of its early significant contributions. Several important cinematic movements, including the Nouvelle...
directed by François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
based on Henri-Pierre Roché
Henri-Pierre Roché
Henri-Pierre Roché was a French author who was deeply involved with the artistic avant-garde in Paris and the Dada movement.- Biography :Roché was born in Paris, France. In 1898, he was an art student at the Académie Julian....
's 1953 semi-autobiographical novel
Autobiographical novel
An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fiction elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction...
about his relationship with writer Franz Hessel
Franz Hessel
Franz Hessel was a German writer and translator.With Walter Benjamin, he produced a German translation of Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu....
and his wife, Helen Grund.
Truffaut came across the book in the mid-1950s whilst browsing through some secondhand books in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and later befriended the elderly Roché. The author approved of the young director's attempt to translate his work to another medium.
The soundtrack by Georges Delerue
Georges Delerue
Georges Delerue , was a French film composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television. He won numerous important awards including Rome Prize , Emmy Award , Genie Award , ACE Award and Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1979 for A...
was named as one of the "10 best soundtracks" by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine in its "All Time 100 Movies" list.
The film ranked 46 in Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.
Plot
The film is set before, during and after the Great WarWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in several different parts of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Austria, and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Jules (Oskar Werner
Oskar Werner
-Early life:Born Oskar Josef Bschließmayer in Vienna, Werner spent much of his childhood in the care of his grandmother, who entertained him with stories about the Burgtheater, the Austrian state theatre, where he was accepted at the age of eighteen by Lothar Müthel. He was the youngest person ever...
) is a shy writer from Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
who forges a friendship with the more extroverted Jim (Henri Serre
Henri Serre
Henri Serre is a French actor who is best known as Jim in Jules and Jim. Other appearances include The Fire Within, Section spéciale and Mister Frost.-Partial filmography:* La Meule - René Allio, 1962)...
). They share an interest in the world of the arts and the Bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
lifestyle. At a slide show early in the movie, they become entranced with a statue of a goddess and its serene smile.
After encounters with several women, they meet the free-spirited, capricious Catherine (Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director.She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française...
), a doppelgänger
Doppelgänger
In fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger is a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune...
for the statue with the serene smile. Although she begins a relationship with Jules, both men are affected by her presence and her attitude toward life. A few days before the declaration of war, Jules and Catherine move to Austria to get married. Both men serve during the war; however, they serve on the opposing sides, and each fears throughout the conflict that he might have killed the other.
After the wartime separation, Jim visits, and later stays with, Jules and Catherine in Austria. Jules and Catherine have a little daughter, Sabine, but the marriage is not a happy one. Catherine torments and punishes Jules with numerous affairs, and she tells Jim that she once left Jules and their daughter for six months. She flirts with and attempts to seduce Jim, who has never forgotten her. Jules, desperate that Catherine might leave him forever, gives his blessing for Jim to marry Catherine so that he may continue to visit them and see her. For a while, the four of them live happily together in the same chalet in Austria, until tensions between Jim and Catherine arise because of their inability to have a child. Jim leaves Catherine and returns to Paris. After several exchanges of letters between Catherine and Jim, the relationship is broken off when Jules writes to inform Jim that his and Catherine's unborn baby has miscarried.
After a time, Jim runs into Jules in Paris. He finds that Jules and Catherine have returned to France. Catherine attempts to win Jim back, but he rebuffs her, saying he is going to marry Gilberte. Furious, she pulls a gun on him, but he wrestles it away and flees. He later encounters Jules and Catherine in a famous (at that time) movie theater, the Studio des Ursulines.
The three of them visit a park, and after lunch, Catherine invites Jim to get into her car because she has something to show him. After telling Jules to watch them, she proceeds to drive the car off the broken arch of a bridge, killing them both. Jules is left to dispose of the ashes of his friends.
Style
One of the seminal products of the French New WaveFrench New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
, Jules and Jim is an inventive encyclopedia of the language of cinema that incorporates newsreel
Newsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
footage, photographic stills, freeze frame
Freeze frame shot
A freeze frame shot is used when one shot is printed in a single frame several times, in order to make an interesting illusion of a still photograph....
s, panning
Panning (camera)
In photography, panning refers to the horizontal movement or rotation of a still or video camera, or the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or a display device...
shots, wipes, masking
Masking (illustration)
Masking is a drawing technique invented in Japan in the mid- to late 20th century employed in comics and animation. It is the use of simplistic, iconic characters in order to assist readers or viewers in associating themselves with them as coupled with highly detailed, nearly photorealistic...
, dolly shots, and voiceover narration (by Michel Subor
Michel Subor
Michel Subor is a French actor who gained fame playing the lover of Brigitte Bardot's character in La Bride sur le Cou .In Hollywood Subor starred in Clive Donner's What's New, Pussycat? and in Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz...
). Truffaut's cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
was Raoul Coutard, a frequent collaborator with Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
, who employed the latest lightweight cameras to create an extremely fluid film style. For example, some of the postwar scenes were shot using cameras mounted on bicycles. The evocative musical score is by Georges Delerue
Georges Delerue
Georges Delerue , was a French film composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television. He won numerous important awards including Rome Prize , Emmy Award , Genie Award , ACE Award and Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1979 for A...
. One song, "Le Tourbillon" ("The Whirlwind"), which sums up the turbulence of the lives of the three main characters, became a popular hit. The dialogue is predominantly in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, with occasional lines in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and one line in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director.She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française...
incarnates the style of the Nouvelle Vague actress. The critic Ginette Vincindeau has defined this as, "beautiful, but in a kind of natural way; sexy, but intellectual at the same time, a kind of cerebral sexuality, — this was the hallmark of the nouvelle vague woman." Though she isn't in the film's title Catherine is "the structuring absence. She reconciles two completely opposed ideas of femininity".
Influence
- Season Three, Episode 5 of Northern ExposureNorthern ExposureNorthern Exposure is an American television series that ran on CBS from 1990 to 1995, with a total of 110 episodes.-Overview:The series was given a pair of consecutive Peabody Awards: in 1991–92 for the show's "depict[ion] in a comedic and often poetic way, [of] the cultural clash between a...
is named Jules et Joel. - It is also heavily referenced in Cameron Crowe'sCameron CroweCameron Bruce Crowe is an American screenwriter and film director. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, for which he still frequently writes....
Vanilla SkyVanilla SkyVanilla Sky is a 2001 American psychological thriller film directed, co-produced and co-written by Cameron Crowe. The film is an English-language remake of the 1997 Spanish movie Abre los ojos , the screenplay for which was written by Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil...
where: a clip featuring Jeanne Moreau appears during the finale montage; a poster for the film is displayed in the main character's bedroom; two best friends fall in love for the same woman – who leaves the insecure one for the passionate one – causing friction between them; a climatic scene involves a woman driving her car off a bridge with her lover. - In the short story, "Las dos Elenas," by Mexican author Carlos FuentesCarlos FuentesCarlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
, one of the Elenas watches Jules et Jim and it influences her perspective on life and relationships. - The Swedish band jjJj (band)jj are a band that release music through the Gothenburg-based independent label Sincerely Yours, which was founded by the Swedish pop group The Tough Alliance. The band consists of Joakim Benon and Elin Kastlander.-History:...
named themselves after this movie. - Pete TownshendPete TownshendPeter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
's album Empty GlassEmpty GlassEmpty Glass was released in 1980 as the first Pete Townshend solo album and was his most successful...
includes a song entitled "Jools and Jim"; an attack on British journalists Julie BurchillJulie BurchillJulie Burchill is an English writer and journalist. Beginning as a writer for the New Musical Express at the age of 17, she has written for newspapers such as The Sunday Times and The Guardian. She is a self-declared "militant feminist". She has several times been involved in legal action...
and Tony ParsonsTony Parsons (British journalist)Tony Parsons is a British journalist broadcaster and author. He began his career as a music journalist on the NME, writing about punk music. Later, he wrote for The Daily Telegraph, before going on to write his current column for the Daily Mirror...
for derogatory remarks about WhoThe WhoThe Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
drummer Keith MoonKeith MoonKeith John Moon was an English musician, best known for being the drummer of the English rock group The Who. He gained acclaim for his exuberant and innovative drumming style, and notoriety for his eccentric and often self-destructive behaviour, earning him the nickname "Moon the Loon". Moon...
.
See also
- Beatrice Wood, a possible inspiration for the character Catherine
- Beatrice Wood: Mama of DadaBeatrice Wood: Mama of DadaBeatrice Wood: Mama of Dada is a 1993 documentary film written and directed by Tom Neff about the avant-garde artist Beatrice Wood.-Synopsis:...
(19931993 in filmThe year 1993 in film involved many significant films, including the blockbuster hits Jurassic Park, The Fugitive and The Firm. -Events:...
), documentary
External links
- "Jules and Jim" on New Wave Film.com
- Century of Film at Guardian UnlimitedGuardian Unlimitedguardian.co.uk, formerly known as Guardian Unlimited, is a British website owned by the Guardian Media Group. Georgina Henry is the editor...
- Criterion Collection essay by John Powers
- Review by Roger EbertRoger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...