Jules et Jim

Film Review by Lewis Porteous | 28 Jul 2014
Film title: Jules et Jim
Director: Francois Truffaut
Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Marie Dubois, Oskar Werner, Sabine Haudepin, Henri Serre, Vanna Urbino, Boris Bassiak, Kate Noelle, Christiane Wagner, Anny Nelson
Release date: 28 Jul
Certificate: PG

Despite being based on the memories of 74 year old author Henri-Pierre Roché, this iconic account of a doomed love triangle is notable for its rare, youthful energy. Francois Truffaut's fluid camera work and post-modern approach to narrative form were so bold that many credit Jules et Jim with pre-empting the anything-goes aesthetic of punk. The movie's unconventional sexual politics, meanwhile, pointed the way forward for increasingly progressive 1960s audiences.

Though her character’s name is omitted from the title, Jeanne Moreau, as Catherine, makes the biggest impression here – her volatile beauty and sense of empowerment became traits of the archetypal French heroine. Henri Serre and Oskar Werner likewise charm as the friends pitted against each other in the Great War, but bound by their shared love interest throughout peace time.

A welcome re-release of a work certain to captivate bicycle-fetishising hipsters for decades to come.