Review of Jules and Jim (1962) by Jaime D — 13 May 2009

This film arrived at my house from Love film the very day I was told by someone how rubbish it was... consequently I really kind of put off watching it... receiving, seeing and returning several other movies from/to love film whilst it sat accusingly next to my DVD player.

.. so when I first started watching it I was just hoping that it would be so bad that I could be brutal enough to turn it off after fifteen minutes and not have to sit through the whole thing... Truth be told the first half an hour isn't, well, faultless.

.. the campness of the two leads, prancing around like fay public school boys on their first sip of daddies port... the unbelievable sound quality, with a lot of the dialogue dubbed very badly... the sheer arty fartyness of it (even by my standards).

.. But there was enough to keep me watching... the voice over with dialogue straight from the book was beautifully read and wonderfully written... the scene with the three leads running on the bridge was so good I rewound it and watched it again straight away.

.. ... so first half hour so so...then the film takes off... a film of two parts the narrative is split in two by the first world war and after we rejoin Jules et Jim they story had moved from Paris to the German country side.

.. and here the fayness and twee overt the top campness drains straight out of the film and we are left with a story that is full of emotional depth, subtle and nuanced performance... just awesome and i'm gonna stop writing now a) because i've waffled on for ages and b) because I cant do the film justice.

. I really recommend it though...Loved it.