JULES AND JIM

FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT | FRANCE | 1962 | 106 MIN | NR | FRENCH W/ ENGLISH SUBTITLES | 35MM

By turns raucous and melancholy, Francois Truffaut’s masterful third feature displays the director’s unique talent for blending formal audacity and gut-punch emotional directness. In pre-WWI Paris, Frenchman Jim (Henri Serre) and Austrian Jules (Oskar Werner) meet and quickly develop a brotherly bond. They meet and form an idyllic, bohemian trio with Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), a mercurial, headstrong woman. Over 25 years, the three swap partners, grow apart, and find their way back to each other, even as their exuberance gives way to disappointment and hard-won wisdom. Though named for its male protagonists, JULES AND JIM truly belongs to Moreau’s Catherine, the unforgettable and incandescent center around which the film revolves. And while the ecstatic image of its carefree young protagonists running across a Parisian bridge is perhaps the defining image from JULES AND JIM, it’s the way Truffaut portrays the loss of this youthful innocence that gives the film its power.

Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre, Vanna Urbino

“Truffaut’s whirling dervish remains a timeless beauty.” –The Village Voice