Lack of good storyline.

Great Film overall

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Francois Truffaut's 1962 French New Wave classic JULES ET JIM tells the story of two pals and the woman they both fall in love with. In 1912, Jules (Oskar Werner), an Austrian living in France, strikes up a deep friendship with Parisian writer Jim (Henri Serre). The two are the best of buddies, downright inseparable. After they have each experienced a series of attempts and fiascoes with the local ladies, Jules meets Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), a vivacious and free-spirited woman, and they move back to Austria together and marry. The outbreak of World War I separates the two friends and years pass, but after the Armistice, Jim visits Jules and Catherine and finds their marriage rocky. Catherine decides to leave Jules, and she turns her affection to Jim, but this doesn't shake the two men's firm friendship.The bond between the two men, and the vivacity and ethereal nature of Catherine, make for a film initially so positive and heartwarming that it is easy to see why JULES ET JIM has won a very wide audience beyond many other French films of the mid-20th-century. The script lets Moreau, already one of the most legendary actresses of her age, show off all kinds of tricks she had long honed in the theatre.But the story increasingly takes on tragic tones, for Catherine is a deeply conflicted person, desirous of the two men by turns but ultimately unable to find happiness. In a modern Hollywood film a character like Catherine would probably be written as the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" archetype, existing purely to show the male interests how to love life and live it to the fullest, but lacking any life of her own. In Truffaut's film, however, the depths of Catherine's psyche is what ultimately draws the plot. Yet because the film is still roughly told from the point of view of the two male characters, the film does convincingly depict the sort of relationship where you love someone and must support them through their struggles, but that person still remains ultimately unknowable.In spite of being a film of wide appeal due to its likable characters and charm, JULES ET JIM is still an exemplar of the French New Wave. It shows some relatively innovative features such as jump takes, freeze frames, and carousel-like camera work, all shot by legendary cinematographer Raoul Coutard who was also responsible for Jean-Luc Godard's films of this era. Truffaut and his peers in the French New Wave were mad about the history of film, and here we get a sort of encyclopedia of film: allusions to the silent era, use of newsreels and other archival footage, and a voice-over narrator that comes in and out.I enjoyed watching JULES ET JIM and there were some moments that I am sure I will long remember – Marie Dubois's brief supporting role as one of Jules' early love interests is laugh-out-loud funny. Yet I must admit that I was disappointed by the pacing in the last third of the film, which feels clumsy. The film also gradually abandons its New Wave freshness as the tragic part of the story takes over, and one already sees Truffaut drifting back towards conventional filmmaking. So, I personally would not include it among my top films. Still, its classic status is easy to understand and it's worth a look for any curious viewer.

It's around 1912 Paris. Austrian Jules asks Jim to get him into the Quatres Arts Ball. That's the beginning of their friendship. They meet many women including Thérèse and Catherine. Catherine reminds them of a statue that they love and the three become inseparable. Jules goes home to Austria to marry Catherine but war breaks out a few days later and both men are called up. After the war, Jim go to visit Jules and Catherine who now has a daughter named Sabine. Their relationship is troubled. Catherine and Jim start their own relationship and the three friends stay together. But the stability doesn't last. Director François Truffaut brings a complicated personal relationship. These are compelling characters especially Catherine. Actually I think the one big mistake is to leave her out of the title. These interconnected doomed relationships are beautiful.

I decided to watch this film again to see how the passage of time might have changed my perception.This time around I saw Catherine as being far less alluring and mysterious then just plain sick -- a pathetic example of someone with Borderline Personality Disorder.Catherine may be shapely, beautiful, multilingual, and a reader but she also seems to loathe her own company. When Catherine doesn't get what Catherine wants, when she wants, she exacts a harsh price.The clumsy, pedantic, and ever-reliable Jules manages to survive this relationship because he accepts Catherine sans complaint or revenge. He takes what she dishes out and waits around for more. (How appropriate that he dresses as a slave for the Beaux Arts Ball and plays a game with Sabine in which he's a whipped horse!) Whereas, Jim is ambivalent. If Catherine won't love him, well then, he won't love her, either. Voilà his fatal flaw.One day, Catherine shows Jim that she is deadly serious: He must pay. Yet he doesn't take her rash action seriously. Or maybe he is so depressed by that point that he's ready to meet his Maker.This still-stunning film offers some sobering lessons for anyone who is searching for love. The person who intrigues you may actually wish you dead. So, as Jules warned Jim: Beware!

At the risk of over-generalizing about an entire nation, I've come to the inescapable conclusion that the French are a very strange people, to say the least. Seriously...they don't seem to find anything offensive (I think they'd find some rationalization for having sex with chimpanzees), and they seem to find everything interesting -- even one of the most boring films in cinematic history -- Jules & Jim.The one thing this film has going for it is this: I've never seen a film in which every single character suffers from an incurable mental disease. But if I want to see such extreme mental illness, I'll go visit a local state mental hospital. This film is NOT about LOVE -- it's about raging mental illness. That's what people who claim to "get it" really DON'T get. They're as delusional as the characters in this train wreck of a film if they honestly believe this movie is a great love story.