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  • Essay / Queer Nature realized in “Jules et Jim”

    Perhaps the most iconic scene from François Truffaut's Jules et Jim (1962) begins at 11:38. When Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) go to meet Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) to spend the evening together, and Catherine excites the scene by wearing a costume from Charlie Chaplin's The Tramp. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay When the men enter Catherine's room, she greets them by name. The manner in which Jules corrects Catherine's pronunciation of "Jim" into Jim's preferred style further expresses "the unambiguous queer subtext prevalent throughout" (Oursler, 2014), although a small portion of the scene is an obvious action and quite close to a couple. . Truffaut had already established the possibility of a strange subtext in an earlier scene where the men box. Jim reads to Jules a few pages of the novel he is writing and which he describes as "rather autobiographical", he reads the sentence "People thought they were a bit queer" concerning the characters' relationship. The men then excitedly run to the showers, which almost acts as symbolism for a sexual relationship between them. It's their comfort with people who consider them "queer" that can serve as a strong defense for this point. It seems strange that two heterosexual men, aware of other views on their relationship, would be comfortable showering naked next to each other, in an age that does not condone homosexual behavior in society. pre-war society. will see Catherine dressing up, in relation to the previous point, it is possible that she recognizes the strange nature of Jules and Jim, and in an effort to be part of their relationship, she creates "Thomas". This scene is one of the most important in the film because this is where the cleaning takes place? three begins. Serge Toubiana describes Jules et Jim as a film “which shows love as ardent and free”. The love we see depicted in the film is a love free from the constraints of gender. Jules earlier in the film suggests that they "abolish Monsieur, Madame, and Mademoiselle" – titles that confine characters to their gender. By dressing as a man, Catherine is able to break away from traditional gender roles while Jules and Jim free themselves from the pressures on sexuality in their society by using Catherine as Thomas as an escape, finding their attraction in Thomas, a woman dressed as man. Symbolically the household? three begins with Jules, Jim and “Thomas”. We can see that Catherine's costume is Truffaut's which is making a comment on the second wave of feminism that began at the beginning of the decade in which he was making this film. Jules gives Catherine the name “Thomas”; the name derives from Aramaic to mean "Twin", Truffaut uses this name to create equality between the characters in this scene. Truffaut further expresses the idea of ​​the "twin" in his use of framing at 12:26 when he positions Jim and Catherine on opposite sides of the screen and places a mirror between them as she undergoes her metamorphosis by Jim drawing on a mustache resembling his own. own. Equality is an important factor in this film because “for true love to flourish…the parties must be free and equal” (Greer, 2008). Truffaut expresses that Catherine can only obtain freedom and equality by pretending to be a man. This performance continues throughout the film as we see Catherine adopt stereotypical masculine traits, such as lack of housework, autocratic and promiscuous behavior, to achieve her goals. Even after his disappearance,.