Jules and Jim (1962) [The Criterion Collection #281] [Re-UP]

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Jules and Jim (1962) [The Criterion Collection #281] [Re-UP]

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Francois Truffaut's ("The 400 Blows"/"Shoot the Piano Player") Jules and Jim is the French New Wave director's third film, shot when he was 29, and still his most popular film. It's based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roché (written when he was in his seventies). Though not the great masterpiece once believed, it's still a heart-moving film that is most alluring and enjoyable. The acting by the three stars is superb, though this is ultimately Jeanne Moreau's film. It spans from 1912 until about 1932, telling of the friendship and love in a doomed ménage à trois. A narrator tells the story.

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Jules and Jim (1962) [The Criterion Collection #281] [Re-UP]

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Oskar Werner is the quiet and conservative Austrian named Jules and Henri Serre is the extroverted and adventurous Frenchman Jim, both young bohemian poets and kindred spirits who meet in Paris and teach each other their native language. After their singer friend Albert (Boris Bassiak) has them over for an art slide-show, they go on holiday to an open-air museum in Greece to see in person the slide they adored and both fall in love with the mysterious smile from the ancient Greek sculpture–vowing to find a woman with the same smile. Back in Paris, the love is transferred to the older, free-spirited French woman illustrator Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) who is described by them as a marvelous "force of nature" and a queen. The three characters become inseparable friends, determined to live their lives to the fullest pleasure. Both men fall in love with Catherine, but even though she loves both men in different ways she choses the doting, generous and more naive Jules and they marry–living in a chalet by the Rhine countryside. Just as they marry, WWI begins and the men are fighting on opposite sides on the front lines with both concerned about killing their best friend on the battlefield.

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Jules and Jim (1962) [The Criterion Collection #281] [Re-UP]

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After the war, Jim visits Germany as a freelance newspaper journalist writing articles on the ruined country and calls on Jules and Catherine, now with a five year old daughter Sabine (Sabine Haudepin). Jim first thinks their marriage is blissful but Jules tells him that their marriage is on the rocks and that Catherine has several lovers, even taking off for six months with a lover while leaving Sabine to be cared for by him. When Catherine makes an attempt to romance Jim, Jules says he will grant her a divorce if he marries her–explaining that this way she will still be in his life. Catherine agrees, but Jim doesn't want to give up his Parisian lady friend Gilberte (Vanna Urbino) and the marriage is put off for good when Catherine can't get pregnant by him. This throws Catherine into a turmoil, as she's used to getting her way and can't handle it when she doesn't. But the three friends continue their open free-love relationship when Catherine and Jules move back to France.

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Jules and Jim (1962) [The Criterion Collection #281] [Re-UP]

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It's a sharply drawn allegorical film that goes full circle around, as it begins in lighthearted gaiety and ends in tragedy–reflecting in their personal lives the events of the world going from hope that the Great War will bring a lasting peace and ending in pessimism with a newsreel showing a Nazi book burning. The characters inability to love each other despite being in love can be compared to the failure of the victor France to offer its true love so that the dark side of the vanquished Germany won't rear its head and take everyone down with their destructive nature when they don't feel loved anymore.

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

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Jules and Jim (1962) [The Criterion Collection #281] [Re-UP]

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Commitment – what a funny, baffling word. On the one hand, it can mean unswerving dedication, a desire to remain loyal no matter what the consequences or conditions. When individuals are involved in a deep and abiding relationship, we consider them as having entered into a commitment. When women bitch about the bastards they love, they comment on how commitment-phobic they are. The pages of the local lonely hearts are filled to bursting with individuals looking for that elusive promise while others scour the landscape for that pledge that will guarantee them everlasting happiness and direct, undeniable devotion.

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Jules and Jim (1962) [The Criterion Collection #281] [Re-UP]

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But flip the facets, and suddenly commitment means something completely different. Insanity requires it, the fear for one's safety or that of others actually mandates it, and when someone voluntarily signs a set of said papers, they loose their freedom and infallibility. Indeed, commitment is what happens to the deranged and the disabled, people who find it impossible to cope with society – and/or visa versa. These committed creatures don't get the praise and the respect of the trustworthy husband, or the caring and faithful wife. Instead, they are condemned and confined. So free are they with their feelings, unable to focus them into productive, polite ideals, that the world sees no alternative but to lock them up. They can't commit to the rest of the populace, so the rest of the populace will just have to commit them.

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Jules and Jim (1962) [The Criterion Collection #281] [Re-UP]

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In the character of Catherine, the unforgettable female at the center of François Truffaut's New Wave masterpiece, Jules et Jim, we see both levels of obligation. On the one hand, this devious vixen wants any and all men to bow to her every whim, to love her deeply and completely, without question and in total blind constancy. She, on the other hand, can do what she wants, free to make up her mind and change it within the blink of an eye - or a single misplaced sentiment. For her, the conventions of society are crazy. As for the world around her, they view Catherine and her companions as equally unhinged, rebels against the standards of sumptuous Belle Époque France. Commitment comes in many sizes in Jules et Jim – and it's Catherine whose holding all the interpersonal definitions, for both good and bad.

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While it may seem initially harsh to say it, Catherine, and both Jules and Jim for that matter, are crazy. But just like the concept of commitment that she is channeling and challenging, crazy also has several definitions and connotations. There is the standard, simplistic version, the one that has the individual babbling mindlessly and requiring the services of an asylum. Within this implication, crazy means insane or nutty. But crazy can also mean obsessive, or passionate, pulsating with emotion too extreme or intense to be viewed as normal. When we say that someone is crazy about their significant other, we aren't suggesting they be committed – or maybe, in all honesty, we are. Since both words parallel and compliment each other, it is easy to see the confusion. Those who are crazy should be committed, while those in a committed relationship are crazy about one another.

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Jules and Jim (1962) [The Criterion Collection #281] [Re-UP]

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This dichotomy drives and derails the characters in Jules et Jim, leading to circumstances both telling and tragic. Some can argue that if Catherine could only make up her mind, if she could direct her dementia into a clear, concrete choice between Jules intellectual warmth or Jim's animal machismo, she'd have found her way in life a lot simpler – and saner. But unlike the element she makes others live by, Catherine just cannot commit. Something inside her just won't let her settle down. Call it passion, or ardor, craziness or corruption, but this is a woman for whom the world holds no bonds. She is destined to live outside of its restrictions and rules, to never let it win or control her and simply exist within her own reality. Sadly, she seems to choose a plane far more ethereal than earthly in which to dwell.

Excerpt from Bill Gibron's Review on DVDtalk

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Jules and Jim (1962) [The Criterion Collection #281] [Re-UP]

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Jules and Jim (1962) [The Criterion Collection #281] [Re-UP]

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SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Raoul Coutard
- New and improved English subtitle translation

DISC ONE:
- The Movie
- Audio commentary by co-writer Jean Gruault, Truffaut collaborator Suzanne Schiffman, editor Claudine Bouché and Truffaut scholar Annette Insdorf
- Audio commentary by actress Jeanne Moreau and film critic Serge Toubiana
- "The True Story": "Truffaut on Roché" interview with director François Truffaut (7:13) and "The Key to Jules and Jim" documentary (31:15)
- Theatrical trailer (3:11)

DISC TWO:
- "Truffaut on Truffaut":
––– "Cinéastes de Notre Temps" interview with director François Truffaut (8:55)
––– "L’Invité du Dimanche" interview with directors François Truffaut and Jean Renoir, and with actrress Jeanne Moreau (32:01)
––– "Truffaut and Roud" interview with director François Truffaut (9:35)
––– "AFI's Dialogue on Film" interview with director François Truffaut (29:00)
––– "Truffaut and Philippe" interview with director François Truffaut (28:02)
- Interview with cinematographer Raoul Coutard (19:16)
- Interview with co-writer Jean Gruault (20:48)
- "Robert Stam and Dudley Andrew" featurette (23:24)
- Photo gallery

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