Response IX- Jules and Jim

Throughout this semester I have seen countless films that involve love triangles, but Truffaut's film "Jules and Jim" redefined my perception of a love triangle. Before the screening of "Jules and Jim" the films shown maintained a uniform portrayal of love triangles. Most of the love triangles in the other films involved two men and a women; the women was married to or dating one man, and has an affair with another man to complete a triangle. "Jules and Jim" has a triangle that involves a women and two men; however, it differs in that Catherine has relationships with both Jules and Jim and each of the men know about the other's relationship with Catherine and are okay with. Each of the men are married to Catherine as well. Therefore, Catherine's relationship to the Jules and Jim is polyandrous.

This strange relationship that the men had to Catherine was unlike anything I had ever seen before. This film was deemed immoral in both France and the United States and after seeing the film, I clearly understand why; however, I was not by any means disgusted by the film. I would not say that this film made me feel uncomfortable either, but I do believe that it definitely was very peculiar. The fact that the film included immoral content and was strange made it all the more original. I do not know how financially successful this film was, but I imagine that it was a big hit due to its controversial nature.

In a way, I believe that this film was misogynistic. One would not immediately come to that conclusion after watching this film since the female character was the one who possessed the most power in the film, but I feel that if one looks at the film more closely, it contains some misogyny. The main reason why I feel this film is so misogynistic is precisely because Catherine has so much power and influence over the men in the film. Why is this considered misogynistic though? It is obvious that Catherine is not mentally stable and makes both men miserable and ends up killing herself and Jim. The mere fact that Catherine is so incompetent as a matriarch made me feel as if Truffaut was making a statement about women in a position of power. I got the sense that Truffaut was saying that it is impossible for a women to be in a position of power because she does not know how to handle such a position, is incompetent, and will eventually fail. Misogyny is also present in the scene when Jim is at a bar and he runs old to his old woman friend who talks so quickly. He does not really pay attention to her and treats her like an object. Immediately after speaking with her Jim runs into another friend who has a girlfriend who does not speak at all. She stands there like a machine and a mere object.

Jules and Jim is interesting in a visual sense as well. Truffaut made history with his freeze frame ending in "400 Blows." Truffaut brings back the freeze frames in this film. The freeze frame is mostly used in happy moments. For example in one of the few scenes when Catherine is happy and smiling, there is a freeze frame of her smiling. I believe that these freeze frames were used during happy scenes because there were not many of them in this film and Truffaut really wanted the happy scenes to stick out and for audiences to remember them.

This is a strange film for me to talk about because I am not really sure if I liked it or hated it. I am very indifferent and ambivalent towards this film. I was not very entertained by it, but I did find it interesting to watch since I have never seen another film like it.