Romancefest 2017: Jules and Jim

Here's the first movie of Romancefest 2017 that's not from America, France's 1962 flick JULES AND JIM, directed by none other than Francois Truffaut. I first heard of JULES AND JIM during my Tarantino obsession in high school -- apparently Jules in PULP FICTION was named for this movie. Remember, Jules goes to Jimmie to get help after they blow Marvin's head off on accident? Get it? Jules? Jimmie? JULES AND JIM! Naturally this meant I had to rent the movie, so I did, and then I was like, "Wait, this is not like Pulp Fiction, I'm bored." So I turned it off an hour in and never finished it.

Now that I'm an old man, I've given it another shot, and I'm glad I did, because it turns out that Francois Truffaut is really a good filmmaker, after all. Who would have thought. Just kidding. Obviously he is. I was just dumb when I was a teenager.

But enough about me and my crush on Quentin Tarantino. JULES AND JIM stars Oskar Werner as reserved Austrian writer Jules who becomes best pals with womanizing party-guy Jim (Henri Serre) in pre-WWI France. After running around town and partying with each other a while, Jules and Jim meet Jeanne Moreau, who hooks up with Jules and starts a relationship. The three of them hang out together and become buddies, and Jim keeps his hands off her because Jules plaintively requests, "Not this one." Still, both dudes are enchanted with Moreau's free-wheeling ways and it's clear she has important connections with both men.

Eventually they're ripped apart by the advent of WWI, with Jules and Jim both fighting in the war. The best friends are reunited after the war at Werner and Moreau's seemingly-idyllic home in the wilds of Austria. But there's trouble in paradise. Moreau ends up hooking up with Serre, with Werner's blessing, and she bounces back and forth between the two best pals and some other lovers, as all three of them try to find their places in the post-war world.

As the story develops, Moreau's behavior becomes more and more erratic, and at a certain point I was beginning to wonder if this was just misogyny seeping through, showing us a "damaged" woman and the way she ruins the friendship of two men by getting between them, or if this movie really was an honest exploration of Moreau's character's personality, willing to go as deep as it could into her psyche. Turns out, the movie's willing to go deep. Although there is a tinge of misogyny in the structure of the film, the idea that the male friendship is pure before a woman taints it, the movie is willing to commit to Moreau actually being a troubled individual, and not just a meddlesome woman.

For the second time this Romancefest, I found myself watching a film thinking, "I bet Wes Anderson's a fan of this flick." Which is funny, since Tarantino was my gateway to this movie. From one director to another, I guess. Werner is downright Owen Wilsone-esque and the deadpan narration and robotic reactions of the leads immediately reminded me of Anderson.