Anniversary of Jules and Jim
On January 23, 1962, François Truffaut's film "Jules and Jim" was released on the screens of cinemas in France and Canada, which very quickly received such characteristics from film critics as "an eternal ode to boundless love", "an anthem of free love", "a film about the last free people" .
The more interesting is the history of the film. In 1953, 74-year-old art dealer and art collector Henri-Pierre Roché published his first novel, "Jules and Jim". In this novel, some pages of the youth of the debutant novelist were described, which took place from about 1912 to 1929. All the main characters of the novel had real prototypes: under the name of Jim, he largely portrayed himself, under the name of Jules - his Austrian friend, writer Franz Hessel, and under the name of Catherine - Helen Grund, the daughter of a Prussian banker who married Franz Hessel.
Henri-Pierre Roché's novel was not particularly successful, and it is difficult to say what the fate of this literary work would have been if, somewhere in 1955, the book with the novel had not accidentally fallen into the hands of François Truffaut. The main occupation of the 23-year-old Francois Truffaut at that time was film criticism in the well-known magazine Cahiers du cinéma. The book of Henri-Pierre Roché delighted the young film critic, and in one of his articles he stated that this novel was worthy of a film adaptation, and he, Truffaut, would have dreamed of making this film adaptation.
This article caught the eye of Henri-Pierre Roché, and he invited Truffaut to discuss the possibility of a film adaptation of the novel. It is clear that this meeting could not have any practical consequences. Truffaut did not have any influence in the film business by that time, and his experience as a film director consisted of only one short film. Nevertheless, this meeting cannot be considered absolutely useless, since the writer gave the novice director a lot of valuable advice and recommendations, and Truffaut realized what serious work should be done before the filming of the picture began.
Very soon, an event occurred that greatly influenced the situation. Namely: in October 1957, Truffaut married Madeleine Morgenstern, the daughter of the owner of the film distribution company Cocinor. This marriage allowed Truffaut to engage in film directing without any serious professional training and any significant professional experience. In 1958, Truffaut saw Jeanne Moreau in Louis Malle's film "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows)" and got the idea to shoot this great Actress in his film. Then he again met with Henri-Pierre Roché with a proposal to create a script for a future film based on the novel "Jules and Jim". The writer agreed and even set to work. But the venerable age and state of health, as well as the lack of experience as a screenwriter, did not allow him to complete this work quickly. And in April 1959, the writer died.
Truffaut had to work on the script himself, since by that time he had some experience in this area: in addition to scripts for 4 short films, he participated in creating the scripts for his film "Les quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows)" and Jean-Luc Godard's film "À bout de souffle (Breathless)". True, Truffaut attracted Jean Gruault as co-author of the script. By the spring of 1961, work on the script was completed, and Truffaut had already stated about the future film that "Jules and Jim" is a hymn to life and death, a demonstration through joy and sadness of the impossibility of any love combination, except for a couple."
Filming began on April 10th, 1961. The film's budget was so tight that Jeanne Moreau, the only recognized movie star of all the actors involved in the film, had to provide her own car for the needs of the filming process, and sometimes even provided catering for the entire film crew. True, there were not so many permanent members of this group, only 15 people, again due to the scarcity of the budget. Moreover, when the money provided by the budget ran out completely, Jeanne Moreau took over the responsibility for financing the filming process.
By the way, when stunt double turned up drunk, in order to prevent downtime, Jeanne Moreau performed the jump into the water herself. True, then she had to treat a cold for two days. But at that time, Moreau was already a world-famous star, on account of which there were 29 film roles, including in such masterpieces as the above-mentioned "Elevator to the Gallows" and "La notte" by Michelangelo Antonioni. A true example of professionalism!
On June 28, 1961, filming was completed. In March 1962, 2 months after the premiere, Francois Truffaut's film "Jules and Jim" was presented at the international film festival in Mar del Plata. The film did not win the Best Film award, but François Truffaut was awarded the Best Director award. In 1963 François Truffaut's "Jules et Jim" was nominated for the British BAFTA Award for Best Film from Any Source, but the British Film Academy award in this nomination was awarded to the British film "Lawrence of Arabia", although this film by David Lean had already been awarded this award as Best British Film. But the Danish Film Academy in the same 1963 recognized Truffaut's film as the Best European Film and awarded it its Bodil Award.
As for the ratings of the film by professional film critics, they are all exceptionally enthusiastic. Even the picky Bosley Crowther called the film "charming, exciting and sad." American film critic guru Roger Ebert rated the film a maximum of 4 stars and included it in his "Great Movies" list. The authoritative Russian film critic Sergei Kudryavtsev gave the film a maximum of 10 points, calling it Truffaut's best film and noting in his review: "a great influence on directors from different countries, conquering with its tenderness, delicacy and grace in the analysis of intimate human feelings."
The film was not shown in the Soviet Union. Several decades after the release of the film on the screens, Truffaut's picture "Jules and Jim" continues to be highly appreciated by modern moviegoers. 62% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users rated the film from 8 to 10. Taking into account this indicator and the above, François Truffaut's film "Jules and Jim" rating according to FilmGourmand's version was 8,598, thanks to which it took 285th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
