VIDEO DO THE TIME, THEN THE CRIME.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

Critics and legal experts were quick to point out that the basic premise of ``Double Jeopardy'' was flawed. If you are convicted of killing your husband and it turns out he's really alive, you can't go ahead and kill him no matter how despicable he is.

While it's true that you can't be tried for the same crime twice, killing your spouse after a first conviction would be considered a second crime, and thus you can be tried for it.

But logic is not the strong suit of ``Double Jeopardy,'' which will be in video stores Tuesday. It's a film you have to go with to enjoy. Or to, since the film did surprisingly well at the box office, which means that the theme of a woman who's wronged, goes to jail, pumps iron, gets released and goes after the man who wronged her with a vengeance hit a nerve with a segment of the moviegoing audience (mostly women, maybe?).

But director Bruce Beresford and solid acting turns by Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones (doing a variation on his ``Fugitive'' character) manage to turn your attention from the convoluted plot and implausibilities to create a relatively entertaining film.

Beresford, who has directed better films (``Tender Mercies'' and ``Driving Miss Daisy''), wisely concentrates on Judd, who throughout the film becomes a woman you wouldn't want to mess with while keeping her nice suburban soccer mom credentials. Judd, who has shown herself to be an interesting actress, seems to pull this off with the force of her personality rather than acting skill. It's too bad Judd is gravitating toward femme fatale roles (note the recent ``Eye of the Beholder'') because she seems capable of much more.

Sublime: ``Jules and Jim'' is one of the great films from the French New Wave, which produced such groundbreaking directors as Jean Luc Goddard, Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol and Francois Truffaut.

``Jules,'' released in 1961, is perhaps Truffaut's most memorable film, an extraordinary meditation on love and friendship. Based on Henri-Pierre Roche's 1953 novel, it is the story of Jules (Oskar Werner), a shy German Jew who befriends an outgoing Frenchman, Jim (Henri Serre), in pre-World War I France.

The two quickly become inseparable, sharing interests in art and theater. When they are shown an ancient Greek statue of a woman with an enigmatic smile, the pair agree that if they ever meet such a real woman they would never let her go. Inevitably, she appears in the form of Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) - whose personality is just as enigmatic as her smile.

Roche (1879-1959), a critic for most of his life, wrote this semi-autobiographical novel in his 70s. The clarity and simplicity with which he distills this complicated love triangle is something that only someone who has put years of distance between himself and the affair could do. Truffaut (1932-1984) was a man much closer in age to the two protagonists when he made the film. The filmmaker brought his youthful exuberance to the story without sacrificing its mature aspects.

It is perhaps one of the most perfect adaptations of a novel in cinematic history, though whether a film translates well to the screen is a specious way to judge a movie. (All forms of art adapt or are inspired by others. Only film suffers the burden of being judged on its translation, proving two things: Film critics can read, and they are too literal.)

Truffaut's coup includes casting of the luminescent Moreau, who Roche got to see pictures of just four days before he died. He approved of Truffaut's Kate.

``Double Jeopardy'' (Paramount) is $29.99 on DVD and includes a behind-the-scenes featurette. The VHS version is priced for rental ($106.99). ``Jules and Jim'' (Fox Lorber) is $29.90 for both the VHS and DVD versions and is in French with English subtitles. The DVD version includes a tribute to Jeanne Moreau.

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Photo: Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones are up to their door handles in water in this scene from ``Double Jeopardy.''