Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3455 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-09-25
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Black & White, PAL
• Original language: English, French, German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
François Truffaut's third feature, though it's named for the two best friends who become virtually inseparable in pre-World War I Paris, is centred on Jeanne Moreau's Catherine, the most mysterious, enigmatic woman in his career-long gallery of rich female portraits. Adapted from the novel by Henri-Pierre Roché, Truffaut's picture explores the 30-year friendship between Austrian biologist Jules (Oskar Werner) and Parisian writer Jim (Henri Serre) and the love triangle formed when the alluring Catherine makes the duo a trio. Spontaneous and lively, a woman of intense but dynamic emotions, she becomes the axle on which their friendship turns as Jules woos her and they marry, only to find that no one man can hold her. Directed in bursts of concentrated scenes interspersed with montage sequences and pulled together by the commentary of an omniscient narrator, Truffaut layers his tragic drama with a wealth of detail. He draws on his bag of New Wave tricks for the carefree days of youth--zooms, flash cuts, freeze frames--that disappear as the marriage disintegrates during the gloom of the postwar years. Werner is excellent as Jules, a vibrant young man whose slow, melancholy slide into emotional compromise is charted in his increasingly sad eyes and resigned face, while Serre plays Jim as more of an enigma, guarded and introspective. But both are eclipsed in the glare of Moreau's radiant Catherine: impulsive, demanding, sensual, passionate, destructive, and ultimately unknowable. A masterpiece of the French New Wave and one of Truffaut's most confident and accomplished films. --Sean Axmaker

Synopsis
Jules et Jim is Francois Truffaut's intense, beautiful, enigmatic film about the lifelong friendship between two writers--French novelist Jim (Henri Serre) and Austrian children's author Jules (Oskar Werner)--and their mutual love for the eccentric Catherine (Jeanne Moreau). Even its darkest moments, Jules et Jim is movingly alluring as the friendship between the two men paints a meaningful portrait of human understanding and compassion. Like the similarly themed Two English Girls, Truffaut's film is based on a novel by Henri-Pierre Roche.

Customer Reviews

"We played with life and lost."
Francois Truffaut's "Jules et Jim" was a very popular art-house movie in the early sixties. The black and white French (English subtitled) film follows the friendship of two college students in bohemian Paris beginning in 1912. They meet Catherine, a free spirit who loves to shock people as much as she enjoys both men's love. She marries Jules, but is not satisfied. They reunite with Jim and continue their love triangle.

Jeanne Moreau's Catherine is eternally alluring, selfish, manipulating, and cruel. She is perfect as the siren who plays with men as a cat plays with a mouse. Oscar Werner gives a sympathetic performance as the idealistic and vulnerable Jules, who goes from carefree youth to melancholy middle-age. Henri Serre is well-cast as Jim, more quiet and introspective, yet still helplessly drawn to the enigmatic Catherine.

This is the kind of movie one admires more each time you see it. At first, you are dependent on the subtitles; later you just enjoy the flow of scenes, the gradual change in mood from youthful exuberance to subdued acceptance, and then the stark and tragic, yet inevitable, conclusion. If you like character-driven stories about unconventional people, you'll enjoy Jules and Jim.

Still crazy after all these years !
You have to be wide awake to enjoy this film - no Hollywood spoonfeeding here ! This film still surprises - despite today's flashy camerawork and effects, there is a constant creative and original use of unusual edits and shots which is simply astonishing. The music is beautiful and there are moments of great profundity amongst the fizzing champagne of a screenplay. Truffaut's obsession with shoes here alone says more than most directors achieve in a lifetime. The shot which follows the actors outside from inside the house - it is impossible to convey the many levels of meaning in so many stunning sequences -the depth of intimacy in one love scene shot entirely in the dark - so much in just one film !

cela commençait comme un rêve
I was fortunate enough to study this film along with le dernier metro for a unit of my A level course. At first I thought yeah Truffaut some French producer blatantly wont be all that as it was just a part of my A level.... how wrong could I be?! The music I love beyond belief and the whole storyline is absolutely fantastic, anyone to dismiss this film as some lame French attempt at making cinema I would call a philistine and yes i started off as one. Sometimes you might say that to study something ruins the piece but to be honest this is the exception to the rule it has really made me appreciate the stunning techniques that Truffaut uses in creating his masterpieces. It's a film that you can watch again and again and the emotions are still the same - unchanged opinions and the same things amuse you, aggravate you and touch you. there are many little quotes and actions that stay in my memeory - my favourites being when Jim ("DJIM") skips onto the bike in catherine's room; the race on the bridge; the view of the three hanging out of thier windows to talk to each other and their everyday 'mundane' activities that let you into their world little by little. all these tiny pieces add up to make various themes and give the films beautiful characteristics that i havent seen matched in any other film before. the techniques that truffaut uses to encourage you into forming certain ideas are subtle and ingenius. im surprised that his films havent had more global appreciation as they are definately cinematographic masterpieces that i would recommend for everyone. there are so many things that i'd love to say about Jules et Jim - and ive left the majority out because i think thats something for you to see and realise for yourselves...