Jules and Jim poster & wallpaper

Boris Bassiak, Henri Serre, Jeanne Moreau

A freewheeling woman tempts two lifelong friends.

Flixster Users

90% liked it

5,248 ratings

Critics

97% liked it

31 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 44 min.

Directed by: François Truffaut

Release Date: January 23, 1962

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DVD Release Date: November 16, 1999

Stats: 988 reviews

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Jeanne Moreau Jules and Jim Jules et Jim Jeanne Moreau in ''Jules et Jim' Jules et Jim Jeanne Moreau in ''Jules et Jim' Jeanne Moreau in ''Jules et Jim' Jeanne Moreau in ''Jules et Jim' Jeanne Moreau in ''Jules et Jim'
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Flixster Reviews (988)

  • ebs90
    September 10, 2009
    ebs90
    I'm not sure where to start about Jules et Jim... It's a film about friendship, love, and the passing of time.

    Jules and Jim have the type of friendship anyone dreams of; understanding, unconditional, exciting, stimulating. They share many things, even some women. One day, ho...( read more)wever, Jules meets Catherine, a French girl, and her "serene smile" and freewheeling personality immediately captivate him. Jules tells Jim that he is really interested in her, so Jim does not try anything. Having set the limits, Catherine, Jules, and Jim become a close-knit group. The three of them go on holiday together. There's a complicity to everything they do, along with spiritual curiosity and sexual tension. Catherine seems to be a liberated, poetic, "real" woman and Jim can't help falling in love with her in silence. Jules marries her. After their marriage, Jim reenters the picture.

    I found the characters well-written and very well acted. Jeanne Moreau's face is one of the most expressive I have ever seen. In the same way, Oskar Werner and Henri Serre deliver great lines and give the film some truly powerful moments of insight. Also, much of the film regards the passing of time. In fact, at moments it passes very quickly, at others, a week seems a century. Truffaut introduces a narrative style that can serve any purpose or style.

    We are not explained everything about the characters' behaviors, but we have room and clues to try. Unlike whatever or whoever controls their fate, Jules and Jim have to follow the succession to their choices with not a single idea of what awaits them at the end of the line. They don't even care. The moment they surrendered themselves to Catherine, the background went out of focus, and there are only two things that will carry and englobe them: their relationship to Catherine, and with each other.

    The film takes place before, during, and after WWI. After being face to face with death at the front, after fearing the loss of each other, they don't want to miss out on anything: Jim will pursue Catherine with Jules's blessing, Jules won't leave Catherine and will try not to be jealous of his friend. Catherine, who has become increasingly uncomfortable, capricious and unstable, won't give anything up either. It isn't as easy as it sounds.This all happens during the second half of the film, which transcurs in an uncomfortable ease and is full of beautiful, sad images. Truffaut refrains from passing moral judgement and simply proceeds to take us to the unavoidable tragic finale.

    The story has so much emotion running through it I found it very engaging. It made me angry at the characters just as much as it made me want to meet them an play a domino match in their empty beach house.

    Truffaut's camerawork is wonderful. He could uncover different aspects, or unite different aspects, of a scene, with a traveling camera (he used a hand-held camera). He thus amplified the reach of a single scene, and made the entire film move. Truffaut also tried to give it an extra edge with several freeze-frames.

    Complex, daring, beautiful. Jules and Jim is those three things. It's alive, fast, full of wit and humor, with sudden fits of melancholy. Truffaut's experimentation feels like curiosity and excitement, not pretentiousness, and his subject matter and the delicate way in which he treats it feels audacious, not sensationalist. Once more I admire his storytelling, and the innocence that permeates all of his craft.
  • kenstachnik
    September 1, 2009
    kenstachnik
    I think you need to have dated a bi-polar chick to appreciate this movie, and I think she needed to commit suicide for you to fully appreciate it.

    I appreciated it.
  • habitualdamnation
    August 6, 2008
    habitualdamnation
    Larger than life. Epic love story.
  • emerson17
    February 25, 2008
    emerson17
    I like the arty singularity, the aestheticly biased aspect of it. YET, I can't help but think this movie quickly turns into a basic account for couple's stories, love, cheating an everything.
  • mjgildea
    November 16, 2007
    mjgildea
    I'd use the phrase "steaming pile of dogshit" to describe Jules and Jim but I somehow feel those words would be too kind. Far too kind. Maybe if it was titled "A Pussy, a Douchebag and a Stark Raving Lunatic Bitch" I might not be so angrily annoyed as I would have avoided this tu...( read more)rd altogether. In the plus column some of the camerawork was nice as was the scenery. But the characters were completely unengaging, unlikable and had no redeeming or interesting qualities at all--especially Moreau. This is easily one of the most overrated movies in existence. The only thing that could've saved this one is if Truffaut showed France getting occupied and executing these characters in the street. Instead you're given an ending that Cameron Crowe would rip off for Vanilla Sky. I never thought I'd say there's a movie that would make White Chicks seem appealing but I've got some words I've got to go eat now.
  • RThornhill
    November 9, 2009
    RThornhill
    Comment dites-vous........... overrated.
  • ralch
    October 22, 2009
    ralch
    LETTERBOX. Logra crear su propia lógica donde los desvaríos de sus personajes fluyen sin suponer melodramas baratos. La edición, la narración y, sobre todo, la música permiten que fluya su romaticismo y se genere esa nostalgia intrínseca al devenir de sus protagonistas. / Manages...( read more) to create its own logic where the ups and downs of its characters flow without cheap melodramatics. The editing, the narration and especially the use of music allow its romanticism to flow and the springing of a nostalgia intrinsic to its protagonists.
  • angelitus90
    September 24, 2009
    angelitus90
    Do not fall in love Jeanne Moreau!!! can you?
  • heybarbara
    September 12, 2009
    heybarbara
    Truffaut's classic relationship triangle. as idiosyncratic, disconcerting and mesmerizing as ever.
  • elsatellite
    August 7, 2009
    elsatellite
    breathtaking mindfuckery.

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Critic Reviews

August 12, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

There is joy in the filmmaking that feels fresh today and felt audacious at the time. full review

View more Jules and Jim reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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  • I directed "Jules & Jim" and "The 400 Blows." I also acted in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Who am I?  Answer »
  • Which cinematic movement links these movies: Breathless, The 400 Blows, The Outsiders, Jules and Jim?   Answer »
  • This is the lovely French actress Jeanne Moreau singing "The Whirlwind of Life." Which 1962 French New Wave classic is it from?  Answer »
  • Who plays Jules and Jim in the Francois Truffaut movie ?  Answer »
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