''Jules and Jim'' ( ) is a 1962

French New Wave The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...

romantic

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film directed, produced and co-written by

François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...

. Set before, during, and after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, it follows a tragic

love triangle A love triangle is a scenario or circumstance, usually depicted as a rivalry, in which two people are pursuing or involved in a romantic relationship with one person, or in which one person in a romantic relationship with someone is simultaneo ...

involving French bohemian Jim ( Henri Serre), his shy

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n friend Jules (

Oskar Werner Oskar Werner (; born Oskar Josef Bschließmayer; 13 November 1922 – 23 October 1984) was an Austrian stage and cinema actor who reached international fame. His most prominent roles include two 1965 films, '' The Spy Who Came In from the Cold' ...

), and Jules' girlfriend and later wife Catherine (

Jeanne Moreau Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. Mo ...

). The film is based on a 1953 semi-autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roché describing his relationship with young writer Franz Hessel and Hessel's wife Helen Grund. Truffaut came across the book in the mid-1950s at a shop in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, and later befriended Roché. The author approved of Truffaut's interest in adapting the work. The film won the 1962 Étoile de Cristal, with Moreau winning that year's prize for best actress. The film was ranked #46 in ''

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

'' magazine's 2010 list of "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema".

Plot

In 1912, Jules, a shy Austrian writer living in Paris, forges a friendship with the more extroverted Frenchman Jim. They share an interest in the world of the arts and the bohemian lifestyle. At a slide show, they become entranced with a bust of a goddess with a serene smile and travel to an island in the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

to see it. After encounters with several women, they meet the free-spirited, capricious Catherine, who reminds them of the statue, and the three become inseparable. Although she begins a relationship with Jules, both men are affected by her presence and her attitude toward life, and the three take a seaside holiday together. Jim continues to be involved with his girlfriend Gilberte, usually seeing her apart from Jules and Catherine. Catherine asks to speak with Jim at a cafe, but she does not show up on time and he leaves. A few days before the beginning of

, Jules and Catherine move to Austria to get married. Both he and Jim serve during the war, on opposing sides; each fears throughout the conflict the potential for facing the other or learning that he might have killed his friend. After the war, Jim visits, and later stays with, Jules, Catherine, and their young daughter Sabine at their chalet in the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

. Jules confides to Jim about the tensions in their marriage; Catherine torments and punishes him at times with numerous affairs, and she once left him and Sabine for six months. Catherine flirts with and attempts to seduce Jim, who has never forgotten her. Jules, fearful 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. The three live happily with Sabine in the chalet until tensions between Jim and Catherine arise over their inability to conceive a child. Jim leaves Catherine and returns to Paris. After several exchanges of letters between Catherine and Jim, they resolve to reunite when she learns that she is pregnant. The reunion does not occur after Jules writes to tell Jim that Catherine has suffered a miscarriage. After a time, Jim runs into Jules in Paris. He learns that Jules and Catherine have returned to France. Catherine tries to win Jim back, but he rebuffs her, saying that he is going to marry Gilberte. She pulls a gun on him, but he wrestles it away and flees. Jim encounters Jules and Catherine in the Studio des Ursulines cinema during a screening of a

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news, news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a Movie theater, cinema, newsreels were a source of cu ...

depicting

Nazi book burnings The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the German Student Union (, ''DSt'') to ceremonially Book burning, burn books in Nazi Germany and First Austrian Republic, Austria in the 1930s. The books targeted for burning were those viewed ...

. The three of them meet at an outdoor cafe. Catherine asks Jim to get into her car, saying that she has something to tell him. She asks Jules to watch them and then drives the car off a ruined bridge into the nearby river, killing both herself and Jim. Jules attends the burial of their ashes in the

columbarium A columbarium (; pl. columbaria), also called a cinerarium, is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns holding cremated remains of the dead. The term comes from the Latin ''columba'' (dove) and originally solel ...

at the

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

; Catherine had wanted her ashes to be scattered in the wind from a hilltop, but at the time this was not legal.

Cast

as Catherine *

as Jules * Henri Serre as Jim * Vanna Urbino as Gilberte, Jim's fiancée * Serge Rezvani (credited under the name "Boris Bassiak") as Albert, Catherine's sometime lover * Marie Dubois as Thérèse, Jules' ex-girlfriend * Sabine Haudepin as Sabine, Jules and Catherine's daughter * Kate Noëlle as Birgitta * Anny Nelsen as Lucy * Christiane Wagner as Helga * Jean-Louis Richard as a customer in cafe * Michel Varesano as a customer in cafe * Pierre Fabre as a drunk in the cafe * Danielle Bassiak as Albert's companion * Bernard Largemains as Merlin * Elen Bober as Mathilde * Dominique Lacarrière as a woman * Michel Subor as the Narrator (voice)

Style

French New Wave

incarnates the style of the French New Wave actress. The critic Ginette Vincendeau 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."

Music

According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' film critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though some ...

, "the emotional content

f the film F, or f, is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet and many modern alphabets influenced by it, including the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of all other modern western European languages. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounc ...

is largely carried in the musical score" by

Georges Delerue Georges Delerue (12 March 1925 – 20 March 1992) was a French composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television. Delerue won numerous important film music awards, including an Academy Award for '' A Little Romance'' (1980), three C� ...

, which he lauded. The soundtrack was named as one of the "10 best soundtracks" by ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine in its "All Time 100 Movies" list.

Awards and nominations

Influence

According to ''

ShortList A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

'', "The pacy energy of '' GoodFellas'' (1990) was influenced by artinScorsese’s love of French New Wave cinema, especially François Truffaut’s doomed love triangle classic ''Jules et Jim''. He wanted a similar voiceover to open, along with extensive narration, quick cuts and freeze frame shots." The production of ''Jules et Jim'' was the subject of a documentary directed in 2009 by Thierry Tripod.

References

External links

* *
''Jules and Jim'' on New Wave Film.com

Guardian Unlimited
''On Jules and Jim''
an essay by John Powers at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...

Review
by

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jules And Jim 1962 films 1962 romantic drama films 1962 independent films French romantic drama films 1960s French-language films French black-and-white films French independent films Films based on French novels Films set in Paris Films set in France Films set in the Black Forest Films set in the 1910s Films set in the 1920s Films set in the 1930s Films directed by François Truffaut Films with screenplays by François Truffaut Films scored by Georges Delerue 1960s buddy films Films about threesomes 1960s French films French World War I films