投稿：The Scalene

The Scalene 

文：阿芬

The film 《Jules et Jim》（《祖與占》）was directed in 1961 by Francois Truffaut（杜魯福）; who was renowned to be one of the most important pioneers of the French “New Wave”（法國新浪潮）; “Nouvelle Vague” in French-; filmmakers-; and it was the third long film that he made (IMDB and DVD pamphlet).  Instead of a romantic movie about the marvel of love， 《Jules et Jim》 is a lyrical-; yet complex-; piece on love and friendship around a triangular relationship among Catherine， Jules and Jim.  The heart of the conflict lies in the enigmatic femme fatale， Catherine， by whom both Jules and Jim are fascinated.  In short-; this film centrally portrays Catherine’s personality as a spontaneous chameleon and shows her dominance and negative influence on the triangular relationship.

《Jules et Jim》can be better understood according to three parts-; (the first 10 minutes form Part One， the 11th minute to the 35th Part Two and the 36th minute till the end Part Three) as a gradual development of the triangular relationship.  In Part One， the director presents the pure and youthful friendship between Jules and Jim in a fast manner; contributions to such rhythm are the relaxing music， use of condensed narration-; extremely short shots-; quick editing and many jump-cuts-; large number of scenes and very bright settings.  In Part Two-; the focus is on the harmony and innocence of the trios before the advent of World War I.  To produce such effect-; the rhythm slows its pace down considerably; shots are much longer and various unusual kinds of shots are used， such as the following shot when they are running on bridge and the series of instant shots focusing on Catherine’s different facial expressions when Jules and Jim are playing domino; dissolve editing is frequent; more andante orchestral music is used.  In Part Three， the heaviest part-; the focus is shifted to the deteriorating trend of the re-united mnage-a-trios after war-; while Catherine’s psychology is still the central concern.  So the whole mood contains a sense of sadness; rhythm is extremely slow; characters tend to be captured by very wide shots-; and many long takes are preferred; settings are mostly at night and lighting is dim; fading editing is used rather than jump-cut and dissolve; largo blue music is incorporated; at the nearly ending scenes that Catherine takes out a gun and that Catherine drives a car on the broken bridge， even threatening music is used.  Thus-; we can see that-; all filming elements are coordinated to create the gradualness of the worsening growth of the trios.

Catherine is spontaneous and it is such spontaneity that starts the triangular relationship.  In the film-; especially in Part Two-; Catherine’s spontaneous behaviors are regarded adorable in Jules and Jim’s eyes.  For example， in the scene in which Catherine dresses like a man and plays a little trick in the street-; she gains fun by simply doing so.  This natural and unintended act exactly reflects her spontaneity-; which tremendously captivates both Jules and Jim.  Moreover-; by using varied sorts of shooting techniques-; the director wants not only Jules and Jim but all the audience to be appealed to by Catherine’s spontaneous personality.  For instance， in the same part-; when Jules and Jim are playing domino-; Catherine is shot by a series of five instant shots focusing on her different facial expressions.  As audience， when watching this series of fast shots-; it is inevitable to be charmed by Catherine’s carefree and seductive image， and， in turn-; come to realize why two men are simultaneously infatuated with this girl.  Moreover-; in the most classical scene， in which they three are running on the bridge， Catherine establishes the triangular relationship.  When shooting this scene， the director deliberately has Catherine running at the front with her chortle and， crucially-; focuses the following shot only on Catherine’s face.  This shooting skill signifies in two ways.  Firstly-; the choice of focus of this shot undoubtedly emphasizes Catherine’s absolute control of the relationship.  Secondly-; since a bridge means a relation-; Catherine’s forerunning status on the bridge implies that it is she who starts the triangular relationship-; in other words-; forming the triangle.

Catherine’s chameleonic personality deteriorates the three way relationship.  The director presents Catherine’s changeability in many fine and subtle ways.  Regarding the use of camera， in the transitional scene from part one to part two-; when Catherine is first introduced， she is shot through three different foci-; which are two side-faces and a front-face.  This multiple-foci shooting reflects her changing personality and every focus hints a different role.  Furthermore， during the film-; “Catherine is constantly changing hats; she assumes a different personality with each one” (Acquarello).  Concerning Catherine’s outlook-; her costume and make-up change gradually to formality from Part One to Three， while Jules and Jim do not change too much.  When she appears in her last scene， she amazes us in the way that she dresses like an elegant but dull middle-aged lady.  Besides-; in Part One， there is a funny girl called Teresa， this minor role re-appears near the end of Part Three and she does not change too much according to both her outlook and character.  Teresa’s consistency undeniably contrasts to Catherine’s changeability.  More importantly-; being chameleonic， she does harm to the triangular relationship.  On one hand， Catherine acts as a “devoted wife and mother” for Jules; but on the other hand， she becomes “a carefree and sexually liberated lover” for Jim (Acquarello).  Moreover-; even before clinging to Jim-; as Jules’s wife， she has an overt extra-marital affair with an artist-; Fortunio.  So-; in such unstable relationship-; both Jules and Jim are victims.  For Jules-; who wants to lead a stable marriage life， Catherine doesn’t play a constant and responsible wife; but he is still steeped himself in such misplaced and unrewarding love towards her.  While for Jim-; to whom Catherine is more inclined， especially in Part Three， she always suspends his love， and， finally-; even makes him pay his life with her.  Thus-; with her highly chameleonic position among the trios-; Catherine destabilizes the triangular companionship-; like a movable vertex-; making an equilateral triangle a scalene.

Catherine’s emotional ambiguity-; composed of her spontaneous and chameleonic nature， ultimately ruins the relationship.  As mentioned above， Catherine is chameleonic and indecisive between Jules and Jim.  Sometimes-; she is fond of Jules’s “generosity-; innocence and vulnerability”; but sometimes-; she appreciates Jim’s “creativity-; curiosity and extroversion”.  Such emotional ambiguity is demonstrated in the very opening dialogues she reads: “You said ‘I love you!’ and I said ‘Stay!’ I nearly said ‘Take me!’ but you said ‘Go away!’”  Particularly in late Part Three， her spontaneous shift in attitude towards Jim and towards her desire of having baby with him are evident to her complex emotional vacillation.  Struggling between them and unable to decide， she resorts to “evading their attempts to love her-; and she destroys everyone who loves her by holding on and even pulling them into her self-destructive whirlpool” (Acquarello).  So in order to escape the dilemma， she ends up diminishing the triangle and picks Jim-; the less vulnerable one， to die with her.  In the scene when the trios last meet-; Catherine drives a car-; with Jim inside， on a broken bridge and dives into the harbor.  Here， Franois Truffaut shows his wit in two senses.  First-; Catherine driving on the broken bridge implies her termination of the triangular relationship with her own hand， so the triangle finally breaks.  Secondly-; this 2nd bridge scene of breaking the relationship-; coherently-; echoes to the 1st bridge scene of starting it.  Therefore， from the start of the triangular relationship to the death of Catherine and Jim-; it is always Catherine who runs through the triangle.

Indeed， throughout the film-; Franois Truffaut ubiquitously hints Catherine’s indispensability in the trios.  In Part Two-; there is a scene in which Catherine， Jules and Jim are in a countryside villa.  The camera first focuses on Catherine in one window-; then it pans to the right to shoot Jules in the other window-; after that-; it takes a wide shot to show Jim in the upper window as well; the frame captures the trios forming a triangle， starting from Catherine.  This shot alludes that Catherine is the soul and the origin in the triangular relationship.  Besides-; concerning music， Catherine does perform a song in Part Three， and the melody of this song loops throughout the film-; implying Catherine’s influence on Jules and Jim.  And the rhythm of the music， or even the film-; is utterly affected by Catherine; for example， in Part Two-; when Catherine is a charming and fascinating girl-; the music is relaxing-; but in Part Three， when Catherine is no longer adorable， even a bit irritated， the music become blue.  Moreover-; the director likes to lay some hints about Catherine and echo to them later on.  For example， as aforementioned， the 1st and 2nd bridge scenes form a typical pair.  The other pair is the scene in Part Two in which Catherine jumps into the harbor and that in Part Three in which Catherine dives the car into the sea.  These two scenes show how the attractiveness of Catherine’s spontaneity at the early state turns out to bring horrible consequence.  Hence， 《Jules et Jim》 vividly illustrates Catherine’s predominance of the relationship.

After watching《Jules et Jim》for the first time， one may be disappointed by wondering how classical it was.  But in the second screening-; if you carefully observed the every subtle way by which the director is presenting the developmental change of the trios and Catherine’s psychology-; you would certainly be amazed that-; as an only 29-year-old director at the time， Franois Truffaut was already sophisticated in capturing the dilemmatic connection within Catherine， Jules and Jim-; and had Catherine’s puzzling character meticulously staged.  Moreover-; although he was new at that time， he dared try many unexplored camerawork and， thus-; foreran an independent movie style.  So-; it is his insight-; maturity and boldness to creativity that made him a shining director.  To be honest-; 《Jules et Jim》 is not as splendid as that glorified， but it is interesting to see how the French-; who are considered the most romantic people on Earth-; present the gradual deformation of a triangular relationship with a flavor of sadness and cruelty.

Work Cited

Acquarello. “Jules and Jim.”www.filmref.com. 1998.  Feb. 2006.  <http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/truffaut.html>.

“Director’s Filmography.”www.imdb.com. Feb. 2006. <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000076/>.

“DVD pamphlet of Director’s Biography and Filmography.”  Panorama Entertainment.  2003.  Feb. 2006.