Jules et Jim (1962)
Chosen by me as I had the dvd sat on my shelf for a while and then saw the sad news of Jeanne Moreau's passing.
It's been a couple of years since I last put a review here, I'm lazy and just put quick posts on facebook mostly. But I have been looking back at some of the older entries here and it reminded of some of the fun I had doing them, so here we are again, perhaps just for one day, but we'll see.
Her character (Catherine) may not get billing in the title but this is Jeanne Moreau's film through and through.
A powerful portrayal of a woman torn by competing flights of thought in her head, the other characters only see her as woman to possess or be possessed by and the film also seems, barring one hint towards her mental health in a bit of throwaway dialogue on a beach, to put it's sympathy with the men.
But the strength of Moreau's performance never allows that to happen, she is never played as empty headed, and only towards the end does her indifference to the men around her seem more callous. Perhaps in a more modern age Catherine would have received the help she needed rather than the romantic reverence given her which leads, inevitably, to tragedy.
The film itself is premier nouvelle vague. It's rhythms still modern and exciting.
There is a sense of rich playfulness and discovery of film to it all, a sort of punk intellectualism whose effects can still be felt in cinema today. Freeze frames, inserted newsreel footage, staccato edits, all combine to create something fresh and interesting even 55 years later.
Very happy I got around to watching this finally.
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