Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre
Viewed: On DVD
Jules et Jim is one of those movies that you feel like you are supposed to enjoy. It is, after all, one of the most significant films in the history of French cinema, it is directed by the famed Francois Truffaut and is widely acclaimed. One feels obliged to sing its praises for fear of being deemed uncultured.
Yes, it is easy to admire the efficient and inventive camerawork, one can appreciate the social commentary on women, love, sex and change, and I suppose Jules et Jim would make a fascinating piece for study and analysis. But as a piece of entertainment? Well, let's just say it wouldn't be your first choice for a night in with friends.
The film opens in France in 1912. We are introduced to Jules and Jim, two friends, both with their differences but held together by the unexplainable bonds of friendship. Jules is Austrian by birth and is not so successful with French women, while Jim is a real ladies' man. After a few flings with the local ladies, Jules and Jim meet Catherine, a lively, adventurous and temperamental young woman. The entire film centers around the development of their relationships with each other. But remember, we started off in 1912. ANY movie that starts in 1912 will most probably move into 1915 aaannndd... the First World War. Naturally, the two leads are recruited into the war...on opposite sides. Don't you hate it when that happens?
And I'm not even going into the love triangle/square/pentagon that develops later on. Now I could talk about each character's conflicting needs and desires, their vice and virtues, and what they represent until the cows come home. But I'm not going to, 'cause that's kinda boring.
Well, it starts off well enough. There is no real semblance of a plot in the first half hour, but its certainly an interesting look at the relationship between two men and the way they spend their youth. There is a pleasantly odd sense of humour about it that held my interest. While Jules et Jim starts off fairly light-heartedly, it gets bogged down when things start to get melodramatic and relationship-y. It is rather odd to see how blase these people are about their relationships. Jules is such a pushover, he basically encourages his wife to have an affair in the room upstairs; Jim switches between women without any consideration of how each might feel about it; and Catherine willingly sleeps alternately with two men under the same roof. They're all such self-destructive nutsos, it's hard to empathise with them.
And that's the problem with Jules et Jim: while the central characters are certainly psychologically complex, they're just not likeable or sympathetic, despite some admirable qualities. When the viewer can't feel close to the characters, its very difficult to actually care about what happens to them. Now, I can tell you, watching these characters making melodramatic monologues and switching sex partners like they're playing musical chairs for 90 minutes is not a lot of fun when you just DON'T CARE. Moving the focus away from Jules and Jim and onto Catherine was probably a mistake: their friendship needed to be better developed.
Now don't get me wrong, I can really appreciate the arty side of this: Jules et Jim is definitely thought-provoking and no doubt Truffaut's use of film techniques to drive forward the narrative were revolutionary. The editing of the piece is amazingly effective in conveying mood and movement. Jeanne Moreau as Catherine succeeds in being attractive, flighty, vivacious, cunning, cruel and a tad bipolar and makes up somewhat for the blank performances of her co-stars. The characters are well drawn out and are certainly believable (even if some if their dialogue ain't).
But I just found it hard to enjoy this film, which I think is certainly key to my decision as to whether or not it's worth watching. To be honest, Jules et Jim is probably one for cinema history buffs and those curious to see what all the fuss is about.
Rating: 6
Verdict: Jules et Jim is very skilfully made and on an intellectual level it could be considered a masterpiece, but it fails to hold interest or inspire empathy in its second half.
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