Movie romance has no better friend than Georges Delerue. As scores became brasher and brassier, or clanged with rock chords, Delerue stuck to his plangent melodies. He was the house composer, the engaging sound and soaring soul, of the French New Wave; his music ornamented films by Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, Philippe De Broca (18 collaborations!) and Francois Truffaut—most spectacularly in Shoot the Piano Player and this eternally beguiling triangle tale. The score accompanies, and often carries, Jeanne Moreau through her affairs with best buddies Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre). But the indelible musical moment may be when Moreau sings a charming folkish tune, “Le tourbillon,” as its composer Boris Bassiak plays guitar.
All-TIME 100 Movies
TIME's Richard Corliss updates our All-TIME 100 list of the greatest films made since 1923 — the beginning of TIME — with 20 new entries
Jules et Jim
Full List
Behind the List
A - C
- Aguirre: The Wrath of God
- The Apu Trilogy
- The Awful Truth
- Baby Face
- Bande à part
- Barry Lyndon
- Berlin Alexanderplatz
- Blade Runner
- Bonnie and Clyde
- Brazil
- Bride of Frankenstein
- Camille
- Casablanca
- Charade
- Children of Paradise
- Chinatown
- Chungking Express
- Citizen Kane
- City Lights
- City of God
- Closely Watched Trains
- The Crime of Monsieur Lange
- The Crowd
D - F
G - J
K - M
N - P
Q - S
T - Z
Great Performances
Guilty Pleasures
- Gone With the Wind, 1939, Victor Fleming, U.S.
- Tenth Avenue Angel, 1949, Roy Rowland, U.S.
- Sailor Beware, 1951, Hal Walker, U.S.
- Diabolique (Les Diaboliques), 1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot, France
- School Girl, 1971, David Reberg, U.S
- There’s Something About Mary,1998, Bobby and Peter Farrelly, U.S.
- Anatomy of a Murder, 1959, Otto Preminger, U.S.
- Gun Crazy, 1949, Joseph H. Lewis, U.S.
- The Incredible Shrinking Man, 1957, Jack Arnold, U.S.
- Joe Versus the Volcano, 1990, John Patrick Shanley, U.S.
10 Best Soundtracks
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