Jules and Jim, legendary French auteur Francois Truffaut’s third film, is considered to be one of the seminal works of the French Nouvelle Vague movement, and rated by many as his greatest masterpiece. Even though there’s no doubting the movie’s artistic merit, to me it didn’t manage to attain the magnificent glory of his first two features – The 400 Blows and Shoot the Piano Player, the latter being my personal Truffaut favourite. A classic treatise on the free-love movement, the movie focuses on the memorable friendship of its two eponymous character – Jules, a shy German guy, and Jim, an extroverted Frenchman, and their destructive love for Catherine, a thoroughly enigmatic and free-spirited lady, “the real woman”. The movie is as famous for its non-conformist spirit and tragic aftermaths of the protagonists' ménage à trois, as it is for its innovative approach on the technical front. Though never Godardian in its execution, it still manages to achieve a level of technical virtuosity through its subtle usage of such iconic techniques as freeze frames, jump cuts, handheld camera movements et al.
Director: Francois Truffaut
Genre: Drama/Romance/Buddy Film/Avante Garde
Language: French
Country: France
