Rating: 
Summary: An important and beautiful masterpiece
Review: "A director only makes one film in his life, others are just replicas of this (extracted)" so said François Truffaut. Jules and Jim is "the" François Truffaut's movie. A classic film in its own right, the film shines until now since it is released almost 40 years ago. In the film history of New Wave, Jules and Jim is a milestone. A follower of Jean Renior and Alfred Hitchcock, François combines mise-en-secne with featured story flawlessly and creates powerful images which aim at developing characters' in-depth psychological changes and multi-facets. The 60s are the golden era of movies in which you read movies like books. You read the movies in a philosophical way. People talk and talk about the movies and never get tired of them. "Jules and Jim" is one of these films. "Jules and Jim" is an important movie of François Truffaut in that it is his first featured film that can achieve commercial success with the French critics. This love story portrays a love-triangle among two men and a woman. Light and pessimistic, the film conveys a sense of defeatism and existentialism in the French society overshadowed by the imminent First World War. Catherine (played by Jeanne Moreau) is a manipulative and luring woman. She represents the object of desire of man that a man could never expect her next move. Jules (Oskar Werner) falls into her trap. Worse still, he married this woman who, deep inside her heart, doesn't know who she loves (or nobody actually). Technically, the film exhibits the theory of mise-en-scene to the fullest in which French film theorist Andre Bazin has long been advocating, who developed his thesis from Jean Renoir's movies. Story is told by series of movie cuts and in a symbolic way. Narration alongside the moving of the story keeps the movie fast paced. Woman is not to be trusted, love is blind and random, man is a tragic/ pathetic creature. Intricate, rich, thought-provoking and affectionate story, "Jules and Jim" is one of the greatest movie of all time. François proved to be a gifted, talented and innovative movie director. Any moviegoers and students should watch this movie at least once, if not several for the life to come.
Rating:
Summary: THIS PURE TRIANGULAR LOVE
Review: "She is the greatest sweetheart in French cinema. While gangsters and gangs kill each other, she dances in a tutu in a circus, is tortured by a sadist and makes her way through bursts of submachine-gun fire, with thoughts only of love. With trembling lips, wild hair, she ignores what others call 'morals' and lives by and for love. Messieurs, producers and directors, give her a real part and we will have a great film." Francois Truffaut wrote this of Jeanne Moreau in 1957. Shortly afterwards, when fascination turned to friendship, the burgeoning director's greatest ambition would be to make a film with the woman who had become the most important person in his life. In JULES ET JIM, Jeanne Moreau's is a performance of touching beauty and lucidity that is unparalleled in cinema. She is Catherine, the woman in love with life, who in turn falls in love with both Jules and Jim (superb performances from Oskar Werner and Henri Serre), amateur scholars, dandies, and the closest of friends. Over the following years, through joy, disillusionment, a world-war and parenthood, the three share a relationship that defines love itself; as Catherine alternates her pledge of devotion from Jules to Jim, and even to other men, our heroes explore a friendship that has been touched by a soul who is "not a woman" but rather "...an apparition". But Catherine is not "fatale"- rather the very essence of woman, whose divine right it is to live as she pleases, when she pleases, where any potentially ruinous consequences are the unfortunate fruits of an unmitigated love of love itself. Truffaut's art is one that invokes the Goddess, embodied here by an enigma of extraordinary grace and power. His camera laughs with her, cries with her, and encapsulates with amazing dexterity the flow of movement - the whirlwind of life. The theme of JULES ET JIM- a triangular love affair that questions monogamy - is unhindered by any sensuality or sexual intimations. Instead it is a love that is pure, chaste and eternally resonant. The remarkable tact of Truffaut's direction, the refutation of showiness, conveys a cinema of charm and elegance, as the film's mood undulates in accordance with the whims of our great love Jeanne Moreau - from untold joy to the heavy burden that is the awful truth. JULES ET JIM is a film of harmony and genius, a hymn to life that asks the audience not to judge, but rather to experience and to love. We can relate to the film Truffaut's own words, when, speaking of Nicholas Ray's JOHNNY GUITAR and Howard Hawks' BIG SKY he said: "Anyone who rejects either should never go to the movies again, never see any more films. Such people will never recognize inspiration, poetic intuition, or a framed picture, a shot, an idea, a good film, or even cinema itself."
Rating:
Summary: An important and beautiful masterpiece
Review: "A director only makes one film in his life, others are just replicas of this (extracted)" so said François Truffaut. Jules and Jim is "the" François Truffaut's movie. A classic film in its own right, the film shines until now since it is released almost 40 years ago. In the film history of New Wave, Jules and Jim is a milestone. A follower of Jean Renior and Alfred Hitchcock, François combines mise-en-secne with featured story flawlessly and creates powerful images which aim at developing characters' in-depth psychological changes and multi-facets. The 60s are the golden era of movies in which you read movies like books. You read the movies in a philosophical way. People talk and talk about the movies and never get tired of them. "Jules and Jim" is one of these films. "Jules and Jim" is an important movie of François Truffaut in that it is his first featured film that can achieve commercial success with the French critics. This love story portrays a love-triangle among two men and a woman. Light and pessimistic, the film conveys a sense of defeatism and existentialism in the French society overshadowed by the imminent First World War. Catherine (played by Jeanne Moreau) is a manipulative and luring woman. She represents the object of desire of man that a man could never expect her next move. Jules (Oskar Werner) falls into her trap. Worse still, he married this woman who, deep inside her heart, doesn't know who she loves (or nobody actually). Technically, the film exhibits the theory of mise-en-scene to the fullest in which French film theorist Andre Bazin has long been advocating, who developed his thesis from Jean Renoir's movies. Story is told by series of movie cuts and in a symbolic way. Narration alongside the moving of the story keeps the movie fast paced. Woman is not to be trusted, love is blind and random, man is a tragic/ pathetic creature. Intricate, rich, thought-provoking and affectionate story, "Jules and Jim" is one of the greatest movie of all time. François proved to be a gifted, talented and innovative movie director. Any moviegoers and students should watch this movie at least once, if not several for the life to come.
Rating:
Summary: THIS PURE TRIANGULAR LOVE
Review: ''She is the greatest sweetheart in French cinema. While gangsters and gangs kill each other, she dances in a tutu in a circus, is tortured by a sadist and makes her way through bursts of submachine-gun fire, with thoughts only of love. With trembling lips, wild hair, she ignores what others call 'morals' and lives by and for love. Messieurs, producers and directors, give her a real part and we will have a great film.'' Francois Truffaut wrote this of Jeanne Moreau in 1957. Shortly afterwards, when fascination turned to friendship, the burgeoning director?s greatest ambition would be to make a film with the woman who had become the most important person in his life. In JULES ET JIM, Jeanne Moreau's is a performance of touching beauty and lucidity that is unparalleled in cinema. She is Catherine, the woman in love with life, who in turn falls in love with both Jules and Jim (superb performances from Oskar Werner and Henri Serre), amateur scholars, dandies, and the closest of friends. Over the following years, through joy, disillusionment, a world-war and parenthood, the three share a relationship that defines love itself; as Catherine alternates her pledge of devotion from Jules to Jim, and even to other men, our heroes explore a friendship that has been touched by a soul who is ''not a woman'' but rather ''an apparition''. But Catherine is not 'fatale'- rather the very essence of woman, whose divine right it is to live as she pleases, when she pleases, where any potentially ruinous consequences are the unfortunate fruits of an unmitigated love of love itself. Truffaut's art is one that invokes the Goddess, embodied here by an enigma of extraordinary grace and power. His camera laughs with her, cries with her, and encapsulates with amazing dexterity the flow of movement - the whirlwind of life. The theme of JULES ET JIM- a triangular love affair that questions monogamy - is unhindered by any sensuality or sexual intimations. Instead it is a love that is pure, chaste and eternally resonant. The remarkable tact of Truffaut's direction, the refutation of showiness, conveys a cinema of charm and elegance, as the film's mood undulates in accordance with the whims of our great love Jeanne Moreau - from untold joy to the heavy burden that is the awful truth. JULES ET JIM is a film of harmony and genius, a hymn to life that asks the audience not to judge, but rather to experience and to love. We can relate to the film Truffaut's own words, when, speaking of Nicholas Ray's JOHNNY GUITAR and Howard Hawks' BIG SKY he said: ''Anyone who rejects either should never go to the movies again, never see any more films. Such people will never recognize inspiration, poetic intuition, or a framed picture, a shot, an idea, a good film, or even cinema itself''.
Rating:
Summary: Warm and so sad...
Review: A grand, poetic movie about the loss of innocence & the complex nature of love. Very few movies treat love as realistically as it is treated by this movie: it isn't simple, life-lasting, or cut and dry, it's an erratic, unpredictable, often destructive force that people have no control over. Paul Thomas Anderson said this was one of the 3 films that most influenced 'Boogie Nights' (the other 2 being 'Nashville' and 'Goodfellas'), and it its influence is fairly obvious; warm, incredibly likable (if somewhat naive) characters, an intense love for the characters by the director, and a technical willingness to throw everything at you. There are a lot of noticeable cinematic tricks in 'Jules et Jim,' especially in the first half, but none of them overpower the story or the characters. Truffaut never gets lost in his showing off (unlike Kubrick or Fellini), and this serves to make the story that much more powerful. If you only see one French movie in your entire life, see this one because nothing else comes close.
Rating:
Summary: Love and Friendship
Review: A story about two friends who become entangled in an emotional triangle with a woman who is not sure in what she wants out of love. The bond between the three is beautifully directed and I am fond of the carefree lives they seem to lead (child-like summer days which remind me of my childhood days with friends). But after years of struggling to deal with there relationship to each other, the question that comes to my mind, is love is stronger than friendship? One would think so, but after watching this film..... I am amazed how they were able to react towards each other considering the circumstances. Great film and one of the best of the French "new wave". Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: pitiful
Review: don't waste your money...out of 1000+ films i've seen in my life, this is unquestionably the worst
Rating:
Summary: An Utter Bore
Review: Five minutes in to this movie, I knew that Jeanne Moreau was going to destroy both of the title characters. Then, about six hours later, she finally did it. Why this movie has such a great reputation completely escapes me. It just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. Very boring, and very precious, in that annoying French New Wave film kind of way, which means that a bad script and bad performances are the hallmark of quality. A surprising botch from the usually great Truffaut. To see Truffaut's best work, see The 400 Blows, or The Last Metro. Avoid this one like the plague.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES OF THE SIXTIES
Review: Five or six years before the " Peace and Love " movement that erupted in the United States and shocked a prude nation, French director François Truffaut, in his third movie, JULES & JIM, dared to film a love story between one woman and two men. And there was no guilt in sight ! Jeanne Moreau's love for Oskar Werner and Henri Serre was as innocent as the beautiful song she sang in the movie. Fançois Truffaut must absolutely be rediscovered one of these days because all the fuss made about his New Wave companion, Jean-Luc Godard, has hidden the fact that his filmography is one of the more personal and interesting of the second part of the XXth century. For once, Winstar has put a lot of goodies in this DVD. A commentary, a dozen trailers of other Truffaut's movies, filmographies and a tribute to Jeanne Moreau (in fact, a few scenes put one after the other while Jeanne is singing the well-known song of JULES & JIM). Images and sound are average (there is alas ! only one Criterion...) but imperfections disappear behind the fulgurant modernity of this 1961 movie. A DVD for your library.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES OF THE SIXTIES
Review: Five or six years before the " Peace and Love " movement that erupted in the United States and shocked a prude nation, French director François Truffaut, in his third movie, JULES & JIM, dared to film a love story between one woman and two men. And there was no guilt in sight ! Jeanne Moreau's love for Oskar Werner and Henri Serre was as innocent as the beautiful song she sang in the movie. Fançois Truffaut must absolutely be rediscovered one of these days because all the fuss made about his New Wave companion, Jean-Luc Godard, has hidden the fact that his filmography is one of the more personal and interesting of the second part of the XXth century. For once, Winstar has put a lot of goodies in this DVD. A commentary, a dozen trailers of other Truffaut's movies, filmographies and a tribute to Jeanne Moreau (in fact, a few scenes put one after the other while Jeanne is singing the well-known song of JULES & JIM). Images and sound are average (there is alas ! only one Criterion...) but imperfections disappear behind the fulgurant modernity of this 1961 movie. A DVD for your library.
|
