Jules et Jim by François Truffaut (1962)

The story begins around 1912 in Paris where Jules, a German, and Jim, a Frenchman, meet and become friends for life. Although very different from each other, they discover profond affinities, sharing a taste for literature, theater, sports, and women. Jim has a lot of success with women, whom he often passes off to Jules one after the other, but Jules isn’t as fortunate as his friend — until the arrival of Catherine.

Catherine has the mysterious seductive smile of a statue that Jules and Jim had gone to see on an island in the Adriatic Sea. Jules falls in love instantly and gives his friend to understand that this isn’t a woman he wants to share: “Not this one, right, Jim?” Jules and Catherine invite Jim to go out with them, with Catherine disguised as a man. They have a foot race which Catherine wins by cheating, after which she invites both Jules and Jim to go to the seashore with her. Having asked Jim to stop by her lodgings to help her with her baggage, she proceeds to burn a pile of love letters, setting her dressing gown on fire in the process. Only Jim’s rapid action avoids a disaster.

Leaving the following morning, the three friends spend their vacation together at the beach strolling in the woods, biking, and playing dominos. Jules asks Catherine to marry him, but she can’t make up her mind. Back in Paris Jim takes his friends to the theater to celebrate a piece of good news: his autobiographical novel has just been accepted by a publisher. When they leave the theater, Jules makes some clumsy comments about women. Catherine puts him in his place by jumping into the Seine. Riding home in a carriage with the two men sitting in stunned silence, Catherine asks Jim to meet her the next evening at a café. She arrives very late and just misses Jim, who had finally left after waiting a long time. The next morning Jules and Catherine telephone Jim to announce that they are going to get married. A few days later (it is 1914), World War I breaks out.

The screen is filled with a series of images of the war: bombardments, trench warfare, and deaths. Forced to fight for their respective countries, Jules and Jim both live in fear of killing each other. After the war Jules invites his friend, a journalist now, to visit him in Germany, where he is living in a rustic chalet with Catherine and their little girl Sabine. Jules informs Jim that despite appearances his marriage with Catherine is on the rocks. She has had lovers and has even gone off with another man for six months. He is afraid that she will leave for good with Albert, a former friend of Jules and Jim who lives in the area. Jules isn’t jealous, but he doesn’t want to lose Catherine. One evening Catherine entices Jim out into the fields where they spend the night talking. She admits to him that her marriage with Jules is a failure and that they no longer have conjugal relations. The next day Albert arrives to practice a song, "The Whirlpool Of Life" ("Le Tourbillon de la vie"), which Catherine sings while he accompanies her on the guitar.

Jules is quite aware of the desire which has begun to grow between Catherine and Jim and encourages his friend to give free rein to his sentiments. He gives him to understand that he prefers to see them together, even married, as long as he can continue to see Catherine. Jim leaves the inn where he’s been staying and moves into the chalet, where he becomes Catherine’s lover. The three friends enjoy a month of carefree bliss before Jim has to go back to Paris for his work. He rejoins his mistress Gilberte, but informs her of his intention to marry Catherine. Grievously offended by Jim’s infidelity, Catherine takes her revenge by spending a few nights with Albert: “Albert is my Gilberte.” Jim and Catherine make up and try to have a child together to crown their union. When they fail, Catherine becomes exasperated and decides to send Jim away for a few months. Jim goes back to Paris and to Gilberte. Shortly afterwards Catherine writes Jim to announce excitedly that she is carrying his baby. Jim is skeptical about the baby’s paternity; he soon learns from Jules, in any case, that Catherine has had a miscarriage and doesn’t want to see him.

After an indeterminate period Jules and Jim meet by chance in Paris. Catherine drives them to an inn for lunch then unexpectedly abandons them to spend the night there with Albert. Early the next morning Catherine telephones Jim, begging him to meet her. He goes to her house but rejects her overtures and announces his intention to marry Gilberte and start a family. Catherine is crushed, then becomes furious and takes out a revolver. She threatens to kill Jim, who flees through a window.

Jules, Catherine, and Jim meet a final time by chance in a Parisian cinema — at the beginning of the thirties, when the Nazis are taking power in Germany. Catherine proposes a ride in her car, and the three friends stop at a café beside a river. Catherine invites Jim to follow her, telling Jules to watch. She gets back into the car with Jim, drives onto a wrecked bridge, and plunges the car off the end of the bridge into the water. Jules accompanies the two caskets and attends the incineration of the bodies.