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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jules_et_jim_3.jpg]]
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3''Jules and Jim'' (Fr: ''Jules et Jim'') is a 1962 film directed by Creator/FrancoisTruffaut, adapted from the novel of the same name by Henri-Pierre Roché (Truffaut would later adapt his ''Two English Girls''). It is commonly considered one of the most important films of the UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave and one of the key films of TheSixties.
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5Jules (Creator/OskarWerner) and Jim (Henri Serre) are, respectively, Austrian and French writers who meet in 1912 Paris. They form a fast friendship, enjoying the Bohemian life of pre-war Paris and catting around with various women. Eventually Jules falls in love with fiery, strong-willed Catherine (Creator/JeanneMoreau). They marry not long before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI separates Jules and Jim for four years.
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7The old friends look each other up after the war ends. Jim senses distance between Catherine and Jules, and Jules admits that Catherine has grown bored with him and has been cheating on him right and left. In fact, Catherine is on the verge of leaving him for another man. A desperate Jules asks Jim to claim Catherine for himself so Jules won't lose her. Jim, who has been carrying a torch for Catherine for years, readily agrees, and [[OneTrueThreesome the three of them live together for a while]], until jealousy and Catherine's emotional instability shatter their happiness.
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10!!Tropes:
11* ActorAllusion: When Jim first visits Jules' home in Austria, Catherine shows him a picture of Jules costumed as Mozart. Oskar Werner, the actor who plays Jules, also portrayed Mozart in an earlier film.
12* AlliterativeTitle
13* BookBurning: Towards the end of the movie the trio are in a movie theater where they see a newsreel of a Nazi bookburning.
14* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Catherine and Jim die, Jules visits their cremation, which the film shows in detail, including the bones left over in cremation and then he walks out of the graveyard, carrying the urns of the ashes containing that of his friends]].
15* {{Foreshadowing}}: The trio is casually strolling along the Seine when Jules makes some sexist comments. Catherine suddenly flings herself into the river, and the boys have to dive in to get her. At the end of the movie, Catherine drives her car into the river with Jim inside, committing murder-suicide.
16* GratuitousEnglish: Catherine's mother was British. While explaining to the boys some crackpot theory she read about the Earth being inside a hollow shell, she veers into English for one line, for no apparent reason.
17* GreenEyedMonster: Not ''enough'' jealousy in this film. But Gilberte admits to being jealous of Jim and Catherine's relationship, and Catherine is violently possessive of Jim.
18* HeterosexualLifePartners: Jules and Jim form a deep and lasting friendship. So deep and lasting that they can remain friends even when their countries fight a war against each other, and later, while both sleeping with the same woman.
19* HoYay: InUniverse. When Jim is reading to Jules his book based on the two of them, he says "Rumors circulated about their unusual friendship."
20* IAmSong: ''Le tourbillion de la vie'' is one for Catherine.
21* IdiosyncraticWipe: In one scene where Jim is looking out a window, the film cuts to a black screen, except for one small rectangle where the window is. The rectangle then expands out to show the whole screen.
22* IfICantHaveYou: After finding out Jim is going to marry Gilberte, Catherine lures Jim into her car, and then drives both of them off a bridge to their deaths, but not before cruelly telling Jules to "watch very carefully."
23* LoveDodecahedron: There's the central LoveTriangle between Jules, Jim, and Catherine. Then there's Catherine's lover Albert. Then there's Jim's girlfriend Gilberte, whom he leaves Catherine for when things with her go bad.
24* ManicPixieDreamGirl: A ''very'' dark version. As compelling as she is, Catherine's joie-de-vivre seems to come out of self-centered sociopathy. The questionable aspects of her behavior escalate until [[spoiler:she kills herself and Jim by driving them off a bridge in her car out of sheer whimsy]]. Indeed [[http://zakka.dk/euroscreenwriters/interviews/francois_truffaut_529.htm in an interview]], Truffaut hung a proto-{{Lampshade}} on it:
25--> '''Creator/FrancoisTruffaut''': She is totally fabulous. If you met such a woman in real life, you would see in her only faults---which the film ignores.
26* MoodWhiplash: The movie became famous for its incredible shifts in tone. It starts out happy, with fast editing, jump cuts and fun, and then it gets serious, melancholy and sad, and the editing gets slower and more moody.
27* NameAndName: Jules and Jim.
28* OminousFog: Thick fog has enveloped Jules and Catherine's chalet as Jim is leaving for good, his relationship with Catherine having gone sour.
29* {{Polyamory}}: Jules, Jim, and Catherine make a stab at one. In and of itself, polyamory is deemed acceptable, but "pioneers must be humble and unselfish," and Catherine's selfishness and jealousy results in a murder-suicide.
30* ReallyGetsAround: Catherine ''really'' gets around, seemingly willing to sleep with every man in Europe except for her husband.
31--> '''Jules''': Catherine believes one party in every relationship must be faithful: the other party.
32* ScareChord: Played straight when Catherine whips out a gun after Jim tells her he's going to marry Gilberte.
33* SexlessMarriage: Having grown bored with Jules, and having already provided him with a daughter, Catherine tells him that part of their life is over. Then she starts sleeping with everyone else in Germany.
34* ShoutOut: The theater that the trio exit near the end of the film has a poster for ''Film/UnChienAndalou''.
35* SleepingSingle: Unlike most films made in America during UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, in this movie there's a reason that Jim finds Jules and Catherine sleeping in separate rooms. Catherine has been cheating on Jules constantly and is about to leave him.
36* SmokingIsCool: "I'll do my steam engine for you," says Therese, one of J&J's acquaintances. She then puts the lit end of the cigarette in her mouth and blows all the smoke out the other end.
37* StockFootage: Stock footage is used to set the scene in pre-war Paris. More is used to portray World War I.

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