Oskar Werner
Austrian actor Oskar Werner had already been consistently acting in film for almost fifteen years when director Francois Truffaut cast him as Jules. The legend is that the French director wanted someone who would haltingly speak French and could project an almost naïve innocence. The film helped ignite the transformation of Werner into—albeit briefly—one of the hottest international stars of the 1960’s. Four years later when they re-teamed to make an English version of Fahrenheit 451, Truffaut famous noted that Werner’s innocence had departed as he taken on all the trappings of a movie star; a personality shift marking a complete reversal from his behavior during the film of Jules and Jim.
Henri Serre
Unlike Werner, Jules and Jim was essentially Serre’s film debut. He was actually performing in a comedy club when he was spotted and was primarily cast not on the basis of his talent, but on his resemblance to the author of the novel upon which the film was based: Henri-Pierre Roche. Although he would not be catapulted to international leading man status, due to outliving Werner, he actually enjoyed a longer career, mostly in French cinema.
Jeanne Moreau
In the script, the character of Catherine seems like an impossible character for any actress to successfully bring to life. Catherine can aptly be described as less a fully developed character than a projection of two different masculine concepts of the feminine ideal. Naturally enough, any ideal is going to come into conflict with reality and when that reality is a fractured one based on subjective fantasy, the only possible end is tragedy. With that in mind, Moreau in retrospect seems like the only possible actress alive who could made Catherine into a human being. Her character does not share the title with her two male co-stars, but ironically it is Jules and Jim who come to be seen as projections of Catherine’s mind. The fact that Moreau was by far the most experienced of the three main actors almost certainly contributed to this irony.
Vanna Urbino
Urbino plays Jim’s on-again, off-again girlfriend/fiancé. Gilberte was her most important role and would remain so as she appeared in one film after Jules and Jim.
Michel Subor
The voice-over narration is provided by actor Michel Subor. Subor has gone on to enjoy a long career that was still going strong into the second decade of the 21st century.
