A Voice in the Dark: Feminine Figuration in Truffaut's "Jules and Jim"

According to French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, this first coming into subjectivity, into a preamble to subjectivity, occurs in the early life of the infant (for this activity, Lacan indicates the arbitrary age between the sixth and the eighteenth month). For the infant's first meeting with its subject, Lacan proffers a "symbolic" object, a mirror in which the infant first catches sight of its full body image and realizes its selfhood in relation to the other. Catherine's maternal presence continues to live beyond the death of her body, and the voice-over accompanying the final images of the movie reveals the undying voice of motherhood manifesting itself through the character of Sabine, Catherine's daughter.9 The voice-over tells us that Jules feels relieved from the nauseating vertigo that Catherine created in his life; it also tells us about his faith in a better future thanks to Sabine: Ils 'Catherine et Jim' ne laissaient rien d'eux.