When I read your reviews I often “get” what you’re getting. I see where you’re going with it. I understand your reasoning and find some acceptance in your logic. Maybe I was a bit too harsh. Maybe if I actually sat and watched one of these f**king films in one sitting, maybe if I actually paid attention I somehow think I would see what you see, feel what you feel, understand what you understand.

Still…I think that your Ebert to my Siskel is a good point-counter-point to what we’re seeing on the screen. I am fully enjoying this excursion into films I would not normally see and I hope that my reviews and their silliness are adding to a continuing dialogue of the understanding of the art of film.

Or, should I say, the art of cinema!

On the other hand, I have found myself attracted to willful, possibly crazy women once or twice… so I kinda related to that part of it, as long as you could read it simply as a story about these characters and not some larger commentary on women in general. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie seems to indicate otherwise. It cannot be denied; there isn’t a single sane, worthwhile female character in the film.

And yet, so much of the rest of the film worked for me so beautifully that I find myself wanting to make excuses.

So to make this review a bit more interesting, I decided to compare “Jules and Jim” to my friendship with Jason. Call it “Jules and Jim” v. “Jason and Matt.”

The film starts out around the turn of the century and we meet Jules and Jim. They meet and strike up a friendship. (Jason and Matt met in High School drama class.)

Soon they are off on a trip to view some ancient statues upon which they’ve fallen in love with one of the statutes. (Jason and Matt once went and saw the film “Birdy” together.)

Before you can say love triangle, Jules and Jim have fallen for Catherine. I can’t recall if WWI had started before this triangle came into play or not, but there was some concern for both of them (since, I think Jules is German) that they feared killing each other. They did write letters back and forth. (Full disclaimer, there was no war in High School, unless it was a religious war between the Fundamentalists (most kids) and the Jehovah’s Witness (Jason) but I was Switzerland in the matter – oh and I dated a girl named Grace whom Jason then fell in love with and dated for years – Grace and I only dated for 6 days. Oh, and Jason and I DID pass notes – so this part of the story is quite similar).

Now we know early on that, though Catherine is beautiful, she’s a bit of a nutcase as she throws herself into a river and they have to fish her out. (After High School, I do not recollect if there was any “river jumping” and since I was older than Jason by 3 years I was doing the job thing while he was still doing the school thing.)

As the years pass Jules and Catherine live in the German countryside (I think) while Jim lives in Paris writing (I think). (Jason graduated in 1985, I was two years into my job. We still lived a few miles from each other. Jason may have known a German word, or two, I don’t know.)

When Jim visits, he and Catherine strike up a friendship and they spend many minutes of the film wandering the village and having a great time and Catherine sings. Finally, the attraction is too great she throws herself at Jim. Seems Catherine’s a bit of a…slut…who, on occasion will sleep around with other men for fun? Profit? Time share points? It’s hard to grasp but Jules seems to have resigned himself to it. Plus there’s Jules and Catherine’s daughter hanging around. (Jason and Grace had a messy break-up and then Jason started dating his first wife Jenny. I knew Jenny, liked Jenny, thought she was swell…but Jenny never made a play for me and by 1986 I was married. Though I will admit that Jenny is FAR more attractive than the actress playing Catherine.)

Jules encourages Jim to be with Catherine, spend time with her, show her some lovin’. He’s a bit heartbroken but he wants their happiness. (Jason never gave up Jenny to me, nor did I ever give up Miriam to him…though Jason and Jenny stayed at our house while I was at a church conference in 1987.) Jim and Catherine start their relationship but then she makes a play for Jules and it gets a bit messy and Jim decides to leave.

Jim travels back to Paris to “write” (or something) and there he meets up with a number of ex-girlfriends (including an anarchist we meet early on who likes to smoke cigarettes backwards). While he’s in his café everyone comes up to him and asks where Jules is. (After High School Jason fell off my radar screen and no one I know asked about him – except my mother. I assume that Jason wasn’t asked about me. Though I had taken up writing screenplays and giving that a “go.”)

Jim and Catherine write letters back and forth to each other. There’s this whole thing about them not having a baby that seems to be an issue for their relationship to be complete. Plus there’s this ne’er do well “Albert” who shows up and sleeps with Catherine, too, on occasion (I think). (Jason and Jenny had a son, Max. I had two children with Miriam; Michelle and Nick.) Jim decides to marry this other gal who is on the fringes of the story. Catherine, at some point, decides to hook back up with Jules. (Jason and Jenny divorced and Jason marries a lovely gal named Robin…I stayed married.)

Jim, in a last ditch effort to save whatever is of the relationship between him and Catherine, travels back to Germany (I think) to be with her and figure out what the hell is going on. Catherine, in all her whacky glory, drives a car around a court-yard, flirts with Albert and they all decide to be one happy family again. (Jason is excommunicated from his church, becomes an atheist, moves with Robin to Massachusetts, gets laid off from his job. Matt, uh, makes a movie.)

While hanging out at a local lake Catherine wants to take Jim for a drive, she drives them both off a bridge into the water. They’re both killed (though the accident really didn’t look THAT bad). (Jason drives a Prius, Matt drives a Mini-van.)

Jules buries the two and goes on to live a heartbroken life. (Jason gives Matt a copy of his will…just…in…case. Matt is deeply appreciative of this gesture. Matt sends Jason a copy of his movie.)

What I liked:

This is a tough one. As much as I loved Truffaut’s first film, I struggled with this one. It was obvious early on that Truffaut wanted to have a bit o’ fun with the camera so the camera was more fluid, he would use pans, hand-held cameras, helicopters, incorporating stock footage, using still frames, etc. It seemed like he wanted to really push the boundaries of the images – which he did well. But it came off to me as pretentious. Sadly, I also don’t think he had a story worthy of telling.

The acting was fine.

What I didn’t like:

I didn’t much care for the story, the characters, or the situations. There’s a particularly nasty scene late in the film when Jim is back in Paris where this “friend” of his is commenting on this gal that she’s “not stupid, just her head is empty and all we’re really doing is having sex.” Great. Women in this film are pretty much either whores or virgins or insane or all three at the same time. Very few have redeeming qualities to them while Jules and Jim seem to have this air of aristocracy about them (maybe because I never see them do anything that resembles work).

Catherine is one of the characters (like Ally McBeal) who is completely and totally insane, seems to have no redeeming qualities, makes everyone’s life miserable, sleeps around but, golly – EVERYONE IS ATTRACTED TO HER. For what? Her looks? Her “bee-stung” lips? I see little or no genuine interaction with her in the film that makes me want to spend any more time with her than is humanly possible. Granted, she does sing a song but…

Bottom line:

Highly disappointed by the whole exercise. Felt the film was pointless and never really went anywhere. Added to this was the fact that the version that “Neflix” sent me was a “Fox Lorber Release” – not a Criterion version. The quality of the film was good, it just had only 6 chapter stops – every time I stopped watching the film (and for some reason I got interrupted more than usual), I had a chore of a time getting back to where I started. I might have felt differently if I had seen it all in one go-round.