Jules and Jim (1962)
I'm sure all cinephiles have movies like this, and it scares the dickens out of them to admit it when it happens. But here goes: This film, generally regarded as one of François Truffaut's finest films, makes no sense to me. I don't mean I couldn't follow the plot -- I mean I haven't any idea what Truffaut was trying to do with the film. I heard the dialogue, I read the subtitles, I payed attention to the characters, and I got nothing. The subtitles might as well have been in Sanskrit for all the good they did me. Jules and Jim is about and set in a world that, for whatever reason, is completely alien to me. (Surely the message here can't be "Women are psycho bitches," can it?) Maybe I'll take another look at this film down the road to see if I can parse anything from it. But right now, it just sits in my memory like a boulder, defying me to scratch out something worth saying. Sorry. Maybe the problem is with me.
Grade: C+
I'm sure all cinephiles have movies like this, and it scares the dickens out of them to admit it when it happens. But here goes: This film, generally regarded as one of François Truffaut's finest films, makes no sense to me. I don't mean I couldn't follow the plot -- I mean I haven't any idea what Truffaut was trying to do with the film. I heard the dialogue, I read the subtitles, I payed attention to the characters, and I got nothing. The subtitles might as well have been in Sanskrit for all the good they did me. Jules and Jim is about and set in a world that, for whatever reason, is completely alien to me. (Surely the message here can't be "Women are psycho bitches," can it?) Maybe I'll take another look at this film down the road to see if I can parse anything from it. But right now, it just sits in my memory like a boulder, defying me to scratch out something worth saying. Sorry. Maybe the problem is with me.
Grade: C+
1 Comments:
I actually feel this way about almost all the films of the Nouvelle Vague. I understand why they are valuiable pieces of cinema, and why they are important in the context of cinematic history, but as films I watch and enjoy they just leave me cold. Noted exception - The 400 Blows which is awesome.
Anyways its not just you. I used to think that too, I just think you had to have the context in which they were released to really appreciate them.
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