The Porch in Germany or Jules on top

This sequence is located near the midway point of Jules and Jim during JimÕs first visit to the Chalet of Jules and Catherine. Jim had decided to visit his old buddy Jules after World War I. During JimÕs stay his affection for Catherine steadily grows. At the beginning of the visit Jules confides in Jim that Catherine has been unfaithful to him and that his marriage is on the verge of disaster. At one point there is an argument between Jules and Catherine that ends with Catherine fleeing their chalet yelling ÒCatch me!Ó Jim instinctively runs after her while Jules remains in the house. They stay out until dawn catching up on their lives and reaffirming a strong bond of friendship. The next day all three plus Sabine and Albert go for a bike ride. The last shot before our sequence is a medium point of view shot of the back of CatherineÕs neck as she bikes in front of Jim. This short seven shot sequence is critical to the development of the love triangle between Jules, Jim and Catherine. Until this point Catherine and Jim have kept their rapport strictly friendly. In this sequence we find the expression of pent up emotions on the part of Jim and we anticipate a reciprocative one from Catherine. The actual consummation of their desires is reached only two sequences later.

From the bike sequence we cut to a medium shot of the door of the chalet from the porch. Through the triangle of the curtains, Jim and Catherine are framed. As Jim opens the door to leave he turns to touch CatherineÕs cheek. She tells him that they should let their new affection grow on its own. Zoom out as Jim steps down from the doorway onto the porch with Catherine following. The music is light and romantic string instruments. We track from left to right following the steps of the couple from the frame of the doorway to the edge of the house. As they walk they discuss JimÕs love in Paris, Gilberte. When asked why he does not stay with her, Jim stops to explain his new found love for Catherine. As Jim bends his head to kiss the back of CatherineÕs neck we cut to a new head-on angle with Jim partly obscured by Catherine and with the house now filling the background. Jim expresses his worry that their new affection will separate him from Jules. This idea worries Catherine as well, who says that they must warn him. Simultaneously we pan from lower left to upper right, following precisely the lines of the shingles on the house until we see Jules on the upper balcony from a low angle medium shot.

The background quickly changes from the docile house window with a flower box to the unnerving black night that surrounds Jules high up on the balcony. At this instant the loversÕ music abruptly stops and Jules commands the frame in silence from above. JulesÕ native German voice breaks the harmony and the fluidity achieved in the beginning of the sequence. The cut to a reverse high-angle shot of Catherine and Jim emphasizes the contrast between the stability and unity of the two below and the solitary precariousness of Jules alone in the dark of night. This shot reverse shot also establishes a framework for the ensuing exchange between Jules and Catherine in shots three through seven.

CatherineÕs translation is delivered aggressively rather than defensively thereby challenging JulesÕ recently acquired dominance of the sequence. A reverse shot, same as end of second shot, has JulesÕ quick reply, touching on the irony of her translation and recovering command of the sequence with composure and by speaking to Jim, who has remained silent since shot 2. A reverse shot captures CatherineÕs parry. She asks Jules for a copy of his book, ÒLes affinitŽs ellectifs,Ó by Goethe. He replies that he has just lent it to Jim and retreats into the darkness of the house having established his dominance of the mini-sequence. The reverse shot of Jim and Catherine is the same as that established in shot 3 but then it cranes down while panning up to follow the two back up the porch from behind to the open door. Jim tells Catherine that he will bring her the book tomorrow. She bids him goodnight with a kiss on the head.

Truffaut manages to simultaneously rotate the arrangement of the characters and increase the tension of the love triangle in this short sequence with his deft use of shot reverse shot quick-cutting detailed above. Throughout the film the use of triangular juxtapositions of the main characters is easily spotted (Giannetti, 51). If one pictures a triangle as a base and a peak then it is apparent that the peak stands out above the lower two vertices. In the film, the occupant of the peak is placed visually above the other two in the frame. Truffaut places the character in the peak who is the focus of the attention of the other two. Whereas the base is reserved for the two who are emotionally closer. The relative arrangement of the characters develops along with the narrative. Through much of the beginning of the film the focus of the triangle was Catherine, with Jules and Jim admiring her from the base. This sequence effectively rotates Jules up to the top and Catherine down to the base with Jim. The beginning of the sequence connects Catherine with Jim on the porch in a stable, standard medium tracking shot thus forming the triangleÕs base. Jules is placed precariously high in the wonderful pan-crane shot 2 that exaggerates his separation from the other two through the use of the extreme low angle and the complete removal of him from the same frame as Jim and Catherine. The triangle, on screen and emotionally, is being stretched to its absolute limits. Jules in ascending the peak both separates himself from the other two but also gains a new vantage point from which he can observe the relationship of the other two.