Francois Truffaut
Jules et Jim

My Perception
There are three main characters in this movie: Catherine, Jules and Jim. They each had very interesting lives and very different personalities. Jules and Jim became friends in the beginning of the movie. They hit it off right away and became best friends, where they did everything together. They share some interest in literature, sports, and women. Jim is outgoing with women and is very good at making them fall in love with him. Jules on the other hand does not have luck with the ladies and is polite and quite. Then there is Catherine, a young lady that has a beautiful mysterious smile that entrances both men. Jules called her first by saying, “not this one Jim.” This was an important part because later they both dated her. Catherine was an interesting character because of her sense of existentialism in her personality. One of my favorite scenes was when everyone were walking back from the theater and Catherine was tired of hearing Jules and Jim argue over the plot to the play and she jumped into the canal. She is very different from the normal girls in movies. Catherine had almost a childlike innocence to her, she attracted many men because of her smile and enthusiasm towards life. Jules married Catherine because he loved her so much and she became pregnant. Then World War 1 broke out and Jules found himself fighting against Jim on the battle field. They were constantly afraid that they would accidentally shoot each other because they were on opposite sides. In this scene the men were fighting in trenches and we saw bombs going off and each of them men were afraid. Then it showed how Catherine was cheating on Jules at home because she was lonely and she felt like he left her, but he had to serve in the army. Then the complicated story line comes in. Jim comes to visit Jules and Catherine and their daughter Sabine, while he is staying there Catherine seduces Jim and makes him fall in love with her. This is complicated because Catherine will leave Jules in an instant to go with Jim but Jim cannot hurt Jules like this because they are such good friends. They all live together now, Catherine sleeps with Jim and Jules is just happy being able to see Catherine and Sabine every day. They are all very happy until Jim must go back to Paris for business and Catherine cannot take that he must be cheating on her with Gilberte and so Catherine goes to Albert. They make up from cheating on each other and then try to have a baby together. This does not work and Catherine had a miscarriage and refuses to see Jim. After some time has passed, they all meet for lunch in a little village. Then Catherine leaves the lunch to spend the night with Albert. When she leaves she feels like she is punishing Jim for leaving her before but he does not feel bad about it. Then Jim tells Catherine about how he is going to marry Gilberte and have children with her and Catherine freaks out and tries to kill him. She is upset because she loves Jim and doesn’t want to see him with anyone else, when she is with others all the time. Everyone meets one last time by accident at a movie and they go out to lunch. Catherine wants to go for a ride with Jim one last time and asked Jules to wait. She crashed the car into the watery depths of a river and takes Jims life. Then all we see is Jules taking the ashes of his wife and his best friend to the cemetery. This was a very sad ending because they were all happy one last time but Catherine had to take Jim’s life. I loved one of the things Catherine said during this film “You told me: I love you. I told you: Wait. I was going to say: Take me. You said: Go away” I really liked this little exert that Catherine said because it shows how she was feeling, she has such an interesting role in the lives of these two men and she is very complex.