Jules and Jim - From Novel to Film

François Truffaut made Jules et Jim after he had discovered the novel by Henri-Pierre Roché on a second-hand bookstall in the Place du Palais Royal. Instantly attracted by the two J’s in the title he was soon mesmerised by Roché’s poetic prose and alluded to it in an article he was writing for the Arts-Spectacles review; this brought a reply from Roché himself and the two continued in correspondence. Truffaut spoke of his desire to make Jules et Jim into a film and it was agreed that Roché would write the screenplay, so as to keep the same compact prose that was used in the book. However, due to Truffaut’s perception that it would be quite a tricky project, he decided to make Les Quatres Cents Coups first. Roché died not long after and so was not there to help write the ‘well-spaced and tight’ dialogue, but Truffaut was constantly dipping into the book to pull out sections to be used directly in the film.

Truffaut tries to preserve the qualities of the book in the film, the adult fairytale, the sym

Geoffrey Wagner lays down three general forms of adaptation – transposition, commentary and analogy; the novel directly transposed directly to film, a creative reconstruction retaining the core of the novel, and the novel used as a base for a new work of art respectively. We could perhaps interpret this as faithful, semi-faithful and non-faithful, but that would surely be a little linear. When adapting a film, if trying to retain fidelity, the director must try to induce the same emotions from the audience as readers of the book. The audience and their expectations differ in each genre so when transposing a novel directly on to screen the sensation evoked by the author may not travel very well. This is because the author uses prose to stimulate, whereas a filmmaker will employ visual techniques. The prose may be adapted to provoke the same sentiment, such as the ‘white pyjama’ episode. Truffaut changes the situation yet preserves the core, the setting up of her final betrayal. Roché’s prose builds fantastic tension, with Jim inwardly questioning her and himself, yet being under the spell of her charm; Truffaut uses non-diagetic music fraught with anxiety to build it up and uses dark tones to give the impression of something bad waiting to happen. Truffaut, by Wagner’s method, is making a commentary, which can therefore only be faithful in essence rather than in literal terms, and true to his intention, the visuals and use of tones within the black and white photography are perfectly in keeping with the mood Roché sets. In the outdoor scenes this is where the characters are at their happiest, his writing suggestive of the carefree attitude that permeates the work evoking a timeless sense of liberty and reminding us of childhood adolescence and our genuine lack of responsibility, whilst all the tension in the book is generally created indoors. Truffaut mirrors this by electing to utilise light, tonal greys for the situations in the open, exuding an aura of joviality; a bright, happy environment, and darker tones insinuating a more sinister and foreboding atmosphere for the indoor settings; this is complimented by the tension filled non-diagetic music he incorporates into the scenes.

Truffaut has seemingly changed the entire working of the novel, in that the focus of the film is entirely on the arrival of Kathe into the lives of Jules and Jim. He does show the quick construction of their friendship – effectively word for word as Roché wrote it – but spends virtually no time on the development of it, the adventures they have together, the women they share, their sentiments and feelings on life, before the advent of Kathe.

During the film, when Jules is about to present her to Jim for the first time, and we do not know, as in the book, that he has spent a month exclusively with her, without Jim, which he had never done with any of his other women, he tells him: “Pas cela, Jim, n’est-ce pas?”. This little phrase underlines the feelings he has for her, and suggests that Jim may have stolen women from him in the past; it is left to the viewer at this point to draw his own conclusions. In the book, however, we know that Jules is a highly intelligent and sensitive creature, given to sudden raptures of philosophy, and is the type of man that will give too much love, will cherish his loved ones too much thus leaving him vulnerable. Jim, of course, is the anti-thesis of Jules – calm and more selfish - and offers exactly what is missing. It seems that Jules makes all the running only for his girlfriends to fall in love with Jim. We have seen this previously with Lucie, Magda and Odile. The novel therefore foreshadows the events to follow, something the film often fails to do, lending a slight undercurrent to proceedings; when Jules and Jim are reunited after the war, the situation between Kathe and Jules is not altogether unpredictable. It also makes the subsequent ménage à trois between Jim

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