It's very interesting to try and compare the differences between the two famous french new wave filmmakers, Godard and Truffaut. Both started out their filmmaking careers by burning any form of New Hollywood form for making movies. Then they went in different directions. Godard preceded to do all he could to give the middle finger to the establishment. Now, this could easily turn into a filmmaker who is really only studied by Film historians and critics as one who turned film language on it's head. But, as I talked about when I reviewed Breathless, that was not the case at all. But I'm getting off point. Truffaut burned the rulebook, but instead of consciously trying to screw Hollywood filmmaking, he was creating his own rules and it was always in the service of the story. In a movie like The 400 Blows, Truffaut was not cutting deliberately to hide the camera, but neither was he jumping disarmingly.
This is also the case for Jules Et Jim. Truffaut's camera is not as flashy as Godard's, but is also very stylish, with quick pans and long shots. You get something like the race on the bridge, which goes from shaky tracking shot to shaky close up. The camera feels put in strange places, which feels pre-ominous. But Jules Et Jim, for me, is more about the story. More compelling then 400 Blows or Breathless, Jules Et Jim is about two friends, one who meets a women who conspires to destroy them both.
I don't mean their friendship, I mean literally destroy them. Catherine is a fantastic character, because she is such an enigma. She is constantly shifting between Jules Et Jim, her mind cannot focus on one of them. When we meet her, she is friendly, interesting and exciting, but that changes when she gives birth and her and Jules settle down in a cabin in nowhere. Her true emotions are hidden by this language she employs and her surface emotions. Jeanne Moreau plays it to perfection, and it is amazing to watch her tear apart these two friends, inside and out.
The story is much heavier and much more complex then the other two New Wave movies I have seen. Both Jules Et Jim are intellectuals, and not very different. Jules is a German who is not very good with women, and he becomes infatuated with Cathrine first. Jim is someone with many girlfriends, but most of them are very plain and, while seemingly nice, very ordinary. They are not Catherine. Oskar Werner and Henri Serre are both very good in their roles.
Truffaut's camera is masked more here then in 400 Blows, and much more then Breathless. But a new style of filmmaking is evident here as much, such as the short, sharp trakcing shots around the statues on an island where the two friends are looking for a specific statue. You can see the influence on the films I have seen from the new hollywood period of filmmaking, and it will probably show up in the multiple other films I will see in the marathon.
I am going to be happy to have a change of style, but I did love these New Wave films. and Jules Et Jim is one of the best.
Verdict: Fantastic. The story is deeper then in the other two new wave films I have seen, and is so compelling that you have to see Jules Et Jim.
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