Films Everyone Ought To Watch - Jules and Jim

In my humble opinion, François Truffaut's Jules and Jim is the crown jewel of the French New Wave. Of all the works of Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard, and Truffaut, the most prolific auteurs in the style, it stands out as one of the best and most relevant of those created during that groundbreaking movement.. These men and their collaborators are responsible for cinema as we know it today. Their works, when looked back upon, can be seen taking the best of what Orson Welles' revolutionary mind had produced, inserting their own unique stylings, and then succeeding in popularizing it (something Welles was astonishingly unable to do).

Godard's popular Breathless often is regarded as the best of the movement, and it is certainly the most popular, but to me, it seemed at times more like an exercise in the style than a film proper, lacking depth, though undeniably exceeding the confines of traditional cinema. Where I believe Godard's early attempt failed, Jules and Jim succeeded. By the tragic end of the film, the audience likely has an emotional bond of some sort with one or all of the three leads, and is all the more affected because of it.

In a fast-paced montage as the credits role and and a narrator keeps a near auctioneer-like pace to follow and describe the events that lead to the life-long friendship of Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre). The pair are inseparable over the course of the film's 25 years, though there are split temporarily by the first World War and other brief absences, when they re-unite, it's as though no time has passed at all. They share language, meals, adventures, and most importantly, women. After many brief humorous flings, Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), and entirely different kind of woman, enters the men's lives.

Catherine is an enigma. She has the face of a statue which the pair had seen earlier at a friend's house. It had fascinated them, a thing of pristine beauty. To see their fascination realized before them in Catherine is astonishing. She is something different, something that the two can not simply share, and Jules lays claim in a famous scene, in a film of famous scenes, saying, "but not this one, Jim. OK?".

Catherine has other ideas, however, and though they all share a profound love for each other, something is amiss. We watch the trio age as the film progresses over the 25 years of these character's lives. After living fairly carefree lives, the War arises and splits the duo apart. Truffaut mixes stock footage from the war and his own, nearly seamlessly.

I don't believe I'm doing the film justice with this, but just felt like writing. It's been months since I've actually watched it, so I think I'll fix this up once I have. For now, here's a famous and great shot. Regardless, just trust that it's a Film Everyone Ought To Watch.