Jules and Jim

Original title: Jules et Jim

François Truffaut/ French - German - English/ 1962/ 35mm/ black and white/ 105 minutes

Jules and Jim is a film directed by François Truffaut and based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roché.

The film is set before, during and after the Great War in several different parts of France, Austria, and Germany. Jules is a shy writer from Austria who forges a friendship with the more extroverted Jim. 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, 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. The men both 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 not 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, and after several exchanges of letters, Catherine breaks off their relationship.

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 a bridge the broken arch of a bridge, killing them both. Jules is left to dispose of the ashes of his friends.

Director: François Truffaut

Producer: Marcel Berbert, François Truffaut

Writer: Henri-Pierre Roché, François Truffaut, Jean Gruault

Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre, Vanna Urbino, Boris Bassiak, Anny Nelsen, Sabine Haudepin, Marie Dubois, Michel Subor

Music: Boris Bassiak, Georges Delerue

Cinematographer: Raoul Coutard

Distribution: Cinédis