There is nothing like a good love triangle. They offer a way to explore the complex dynamics within multiple relationships. Most of us know about famous love triangles such as Benjamin’s elaborate relations between both Mrs. Robinson and Elaine in The Graduate. Or one of the oldest known biblical love triangles, where Jacob has a relationship with two sisters Rachel and Leah. Another famous but perhaps less well-known love triangle is the story of Jules and Jim, François Truffaut’s 1962 classic French New Wave film. The film’s unique style, content, and strong female lead have had a lasting impact and inspired many American films, including Bonnie and Clyde.
Jules (Oskar Werner) is a timid Austrian writer who forms a powerful friendship with Jim (Henri Serre), a high-spirited Frenchman. The story begins just before World War 1 when the friends inquire about a carefree and rash woman named Catherine (Jeanne Moreau). Both men quickly fall for her, but it is Jules who wins her over and marries her. The couple soon has a daughter and retreats to a quaint life in Austria. However, Catherine’s dissatisfaction with life, combined with her impulsive free spirit, results in multiple affairs and a broken marriage. Jim visits them after the war and uncovers the truth of Catherine’s feelings toward him, which he passionately reciprocates. Their relationship blossoms, all witnessed and condoned by Jules. Catherine, however, remains unsatisfied and her deranged actions result in tragedy—where Catherine casually tells Jim to take a drive with her, orders Jules to watch them carefully, and then drives both Jim and her off a bridge—thus killing them both and leaving Jules alone in despair.
Not surprisingly, Jules and Jim was a key film in the French New Wave and a great contribution to the birth of the New Hollywood movement in cinema. The French New Wave is a film movement that became increasingly popular in Paris, France in the late 1950s and 60s. French filmmakers took a new approach to film, where they had the freedom to experiment with film styles and forms at low-budget costs. The unique and striking techniques used, combined with provocative content and spontaneous storytelling, left a huge mark on the world, especially America. The French New Wave encouraged the transition of the Old to New Hollywood movement. This New Hollywood movement occurred in the late 1960s when more filmmakers and directors were taking control of their films. They put more emphasis on style, expression, and eccentric techniques. They also began to do more shoots on location. The French already did all of this, and it is clear to see how immense the impact of the French New Wave was on American cinema.
Firstly, before watching Jules and Jim, I expected the film to be unique in its cinematography and more risqué in content, as I had heard how the film pushes the era’s cultural boundaries. I watched Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless a few months prior to Jules and Jim and got a taste of the French style. When I finished watching it, however, I was surprised by the complexity of the character of Catherine, her independent feminist attitude, and the way both Jules and Jim portrayed her. Jules proclaimed that “Catherine never does anything halfway. She’s an irresistible force that can’t be stopped. Her harmony is never shaken because…she knows she is always innocent,” and Jim responded, “You speak of her as if she was a queen,” with Jules final reply, “She is a queen. Let me be frank. She’s not especially beautiful or intelligent or sincere…but she is a real woman…”. The way Jules views Catherine was quite different from how most women were portrayed in older American films: meek, simple, and living out the classic maternal gender roles. Catherine, however, was viewed highly by both Jules and Jim, despite her crazed manners.
This content in Jules and Jim proved to influence filmmakers throughout time. The film is filled with adult concepts of sexuality where the woman takes the lead. It also allowed a typically considered taboo love triangle of characters to express themselves and their true feelings. Although Jules is endlessly infatuated with Catherine, he allows her and Jim to be together in hopes that Catherine will not run away. Jim even lives with them for a while and all of them still converse in friendly manners. This contrasts sharply with other films in that era, and even still today, where there is usually tension and quarrels between love triangles. But even after Catherine swapped lovers, Jules and Jim’s friendship remained strong, and Jules had no remorse towards Catherine.
In addition to the complex characteristics of Catherine and the movie’s provocative content, there are other unique techniques in Jules and Jim that have left a lasting impact on the world. The film’s cinematography and editing carry a unique and at the time, experimental, approach. For example, when Catherine dresses as a man and the three race across the bridge, the camera focuses up close on her side profile and follows her running. The way this scene was shot offers insight into the psyche of Catherine, seeing the joy she has in having Jules and Jim chase her. It foreshadows what is to come when they state, “You cheated,” and Catherine responds, “Yes, but I won.” In other instances, there is a lack of the traditional shot-reverse-shots and instead, often use handheld cameras, jump cuts, aggressive pans, and cuttings throughout scenes. The almost disorienting camera angles and techniques help the audience connect with the constant feeling of uneasiness in the characters. One other striking technique used was experimenting with the camera frame speed. During a scene when Catherine said “I never laughed before I met you two. I always looked like this,” the camera freezes on single frames when Catherine poses displaying her old face of discontent and gloom. These still to fluid back-and-forth shots draw attention to Catherine’s expressions and true feelings
As previously mentioned, the film inspired future American films, especially Bonnie and Clyde. The screenwriters of that film, Robert Benton and David Newman, were great fans of French New Wave films. As mentioned in Harris’ book Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, Robert Benton went to see the movie at least a dozen times and claimed that the film helped him heal from his “romantic injury” as well as indulge in his passion for French New Wave films. Harris describes Jules and Jim to have “studied disregard for the moral and narrative strictures of Hollywood filmmaking (Truffaut himself called it ‘deliberately boring’), and its equal doses of hopelessness and romanticism” (Harris, 7). Harris explains how the film was immensely popular as its “emotional ambiguity and grown-up sexuality were virtually black-market items in American movies of the time” (Harris, 8). He continues to mention how Jules and Jim, specifically the director François Truffaut’s style, was a major inspiration for Benton and Newman in developing the script for Bonnie and Clyde. One common theme is the female characters—Bonnie and Catherine—proving society and men wrong, that they can be fearless and passionate feminists who do not need to stick to the stereotypical gender roles. In turn, Bonnie and Clyde inspired another generation of mold-breaking female characters including Princess Leia, Captain Marvel, Harmonie Granger, and Katniss Everdeen. All these characters are their own woman, not confined to the meek gender roles of the Old Hollywood.
Overall, François Truffaut’s Jules and Jim is a classic film released during the French New Wave that contributed to the birth of the New Hollywood movement in American cinema. Jules and Jim was a movie ahead of its time, pushing the boundaries of filmmaking and inspiring other films with its fresh style and content. Classic movies like Bonnie and Clyde have Jules and Jim to thank, for it brought forth an epic contemporary style of film.