Jules and Jim / Two English Girls

JULES AND JIM, 1962, Janus Films, 105 min. Dir. François Truffaut. In one of the greatest films of the French New Wave, Truffaut elevates the materials of old-fashioned melodrama into high art: Two friends are forced to fight on different sides during World War I and fall in love with the same woman during peacetime. The film follows the shifting relationships and affections among the three characters over the course of many years, creating a powerful emotional experience that is both intimate and epic.

TWO ENGLISH GIRLS (LES DEUX ANGLAISES ET LE CONTINENT), 1971, Janus Films, 108 min. Dir. François Truffaut. In a sort of reverse-gender JULES AND JIM, a young writer (Jean-Pierre Léaud) finds himself in a long-term affair with two sisters. Truffaut returns to his earlier film’s themes with an older, more melancholy eye; youthful enthusiasm has given way to mature resignation, and the sophistication of Truffaut’s ideas is matched by his most visually stunning images.