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Jules et Jim (1962) More at IMDbPro »

Jules and Jim (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: François Truffaut's third feature, though it's named for the two best friends who become virtually inseparable in pre-World War I Paris, is centered on Jeanne Moreau's Catherine, the most mysterious, enigmatic woman in his career-long gallery of rich female portraits. Adapted from the novel by Henri-Pierre Roché, Truffaut's picture explores the 30-year friendship between Austrian biologist Jules (Oskar Werner) and Parisian writer Jim (Henri Serre) and the love triangle formed when the alluring Catherine makes the duo a trio. Spontaneous and lively, a woman of intense but dynamic emotions, she becomes the axle on which their friendship turns as Jules woos her and they marry, only to find that no one man can hold her. Directed in bursts of concentrated scenes interspersed with montage sequences and pulled together by the commentary of an omniscient narrator, Truffaut layers his tragic drama with a wealth of detail. He draws on his bag of New Wave tricks for the carefree days of youth--zooms, flash cuts, freeze frames--that disappear as the marriage disintegrates during the gloom of the postwar years. Werner is excellent as Jules, a vibrant young man whose slow, melancholy slide into emotional compromise is charted in his increasingly sad eyes and resigned face, while Serre plays Jim as more of an enigma, guarded and introspective. But both are eclipsed in the glare of Moreau's radiant Catherine: impulsive, demanding, sensual, passionate, destructive, and ultimately unknowable. A masterpiece of the French New Wave and one of Truffaut's most confident and accomplished films. --Sean Axmaker

8 Truffaut Six-Pack Collection (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: This boxed set of seven films by François Truffaut (five features and two short films) includes a selection of classic and lesser-known titles from the master of the French New Wave.

Jules and Jim is considered by many to be the director's masterpiece. Jeanne Moreau is superb as Catherine, an enigmatic woman who comes between two friends in this exquisitely paced story of a doomed love triangle. The Woman Next Door, made 20 years later in 1981, also explores the potentially destructive power of love. Gérard Depardieu plays a married man whose life is turned upside down by the return of a former lover. A third film explores the dark side of passion--The Soft Skin, made in 1964. When a successful, married publisher (Jean Desailly) embarks on an affair with an airline stewardess, deception, jealousy, and passion combine to create a potentially lethal cocktail.

Three films in this set trace the life of Antoine Doinel, a character who first appeared in Truffaut's The 400 Blows. Antoine and Colette, originally part of an episodic film by several directors entitled L'Amour à vingt ans (1962), appears here with another charming short film, Les Mistons (1957). In Stolen Kisses (1968), Antoine is in his twenties, just out of the army, and looking for love and employment, while in Bed and Board (1970), he has married and has a child, although parenthood hasn't made him any more mature. These films document an extraordinary collaboration between Truffaut and actor Jean-Pierre Leaud, together creating one of the most fascinating and enduring characters in cinema. --Simon Leake