On Jules and Jim
By May 20, 2005
When François Truffaut was a twenty-three-year-old film critic, in 1955, he read a first novel by a seventy-four-year-old writer, Henri-Pierre Roché. “The book overwhelmed me Read more »
- France
- 1962
- 104 minutes
- Black and White
- 2.35:1
- French
SYNOPSIS: Hailed as one of the finest films ever made, legendary director François Truffaut’s early masterpiece Jules and Jim charts the relationship between two friends and the object of their mutual obsession over the course of twenty-five years. Jeanne Moreau stars as Catherine, the alluring and willful young woman whose enigmatic smile and passionate nature lure Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) into one of cinema’s most captivating romantic triangles. An exuberant and poignant meditation on freedom, loyalty, and the fortitude of love, Jules and Jim was a worldwide smash upon its release in 1962 and remains as audacious and entrancing today.
Cast & CreditsOpen
Cast
| Catherine | Jeanne Moreau |
| Jules | Oskar Werner |
| Jim | Henri Serre |
| Gilberte | Vanna Urbino |
| Albert | Bassiak |
| Lucie | Anny Nelsen |
| Voice | Michel Subor |
Credits
| Based on the book by | Henri-Pierre Roché |
| Cinematography | Raoul Coutard |
| Director | François Truffaut |
| Producer | François Truffaut |
| Screenplay | Jean Gruault and François Truffaut |
| Editing | Claudine Bouché |
| Music | Georges Delerue |
Disc Features
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Raoul Coutard
- Two audio commentaries: one featuring co-writer Jean Gruault, Truffaut collaborator Suzanne Schiffman, editor Claudine Bouché, and Truffaut scholar Annette Insdorf; the other featuring legendary actress Jeanne Moreau and Truffaut biographer Serge Toubiana
- Excerpts from The Key to Jules and Jim (1985), a documentary on author Henri-Pierre Roché and the true stories on which the novel and film are based
- Truffaut on Roché, from the French program Bibliothèque de poche (1966)
- New video interview with Coutard
- Video interview with Gruault
- New video conversation between scholars Robert Stam and Dudley Andrew
- Excerpts from a 1965 episode of the French television program Cinéastes de notre temps dedicated to François Truffaut
- Segment from the French program L’Invité du Dimanche (1969), featuring Truffaut, Moreau, and Jean Renoir
- Excerpts from Truffaut’s first appearance on American television, a 1977 interview with New York Film Festival director Richard Roud * Excerpts from a 1979 American Film Institute Dialogue on Film given by Truffaut
- Archival audio interview of Truffaut by Claude-Jean Philippe (1980)
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
