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Jules and Jim Movie Review

Jules and Jim is a 1962 French New Wave romantic drama film directed by Francois Truffaut and starring Jeanne Moreau. It’s another overrated movie hailing from this movement.

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“We played with life and lost“

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It follows love triangle concerning two friends and an impulsive woman through decades. When it comes to these French New Wave films, they are always about style over substance. Here, that is seen throughout its runtime as Truffaut once again is concerned more with the artistry of technical aspects than a genuinely interesting and/or meaningful story.

I personally don’t care for love triangles and this is one film that is very much concerned with a triangle, thus I did not quite care for it. What I did like here was an unexpectedly lighthearted approach to storytelling that really worked. The optimism and endearing nature of the first half was well contrasted with the sadness of the second half. Tonally, the movie definitely works.

Jules and Jim also features a terrific performance from Jeanne Moreau in a very interesting, complex role of a woman who is definitely boiling from the inside, though we rarely see that. The nuance of her performance was definitely admirable to witness. It’s a shame that she was this great, though, because she left the other two actors in the dust, neither one of them being as memorable as her.

And I simply did not care for the titular characters. The movie is called Jules and Jim, but it is Catherine who is the real star with these two being supporting characters and not particularly interesting ones at that. The film never made use of their friendship properly and it just went through the motions. I dislike films that span decades and this one definitely felt rushed in that regard.

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But I did appreciate its gorgeous cinematography and impressive editing. Some of the imagery is gorgeous and some of the sections are beautifully edited. The movie is so technically accomplished that those aspects elevated what is basically a simple, uninteresting storyline. It needed better dialogue and a much better script.

Jules and Jim is yet another overrated French New Wave movie that does benefit from a fantastic performance from Jeanne Moreau in the main role. The movie may have been called Jules and Jim, but it is entirely about Catherine herself. The cinematography and editing are terrific and the diverse tone in the film is interesting. The problem here is that it’s another case of style over substance as the characters are uninteresting and underdeveloped and the script is very weak.

My Rating – 3.5