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‘[L]iterature is literature, film is film. It’s really as simple as that. There’s no such thing as a faithful adaptation.’ (ROBIN WOOD). Discuss with reference to any novel and its film adaptation. François Truffaut made Jules et Jim after he had discovered the novel by Henri-Pierre Roché on a second-hand bookstall in the Place du Palais Royal. Instantly attracted by the two J’s in the title he was soon mesmerised by Roché’s poetic prose and alluded to it in an article he was writing for the Arts-Spectacles review; this brought a reply from Roché himself and the two continued in correspondence. Truffaut spoke of his desire to make Jules et Jim into a film and it was agreed that Roché would write the screenplay, so as to keep the same compact prose that was used in the book. However, due to Truffaut’s perception that it would be quite a tricky project, he decided to make Les Quatres Cents Coups first. Roché died not long after and so was not there to help write the ‘well-spaced and tight’ dialogue, but Truffaut was constantly dipping into the book to pull out sections to be used directly in the film. Truffaut tries to preserve the qualities of the book in the film, the adult fairytale, the sym