Stolen Kisses (1969)

Absolutely brilliant

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

François Truffaut continues the story of Antoine Doinel, the alter ego of Jean-Pierre Léaud, 9 years after the groundbreaking THE 400 BLOWS (1959), the rebellious boy has reached the adolescence, still rebellious though, he is discharged from his military service for being unruly, the comic vibe is established from the very start by the juxtaposition of the dead-serious officer and a laughter-repressed Antoine, who turns out to be a street-smart young man in spite of a tough childhood, and his parents have been completely evacuated out of his life (without any explanation). The first place he visits is a whorehouse, then stops by his girlfriend Christine Darbon (Jade), but is told she is out on a ski vacation by her genial parents (Ceccaldi and Duhamel), but Truffaut slyly implies that there seems to be something else on Christine's agenda now.Antoine finds a job as a night porter in a hotel in Paris, thanks to Christine's father's recommendation, a comely Christine visits him one night, she greets him on the new job and seems casually happy but not so enthusiastic. Soon he is fired for being an unwitting helper of a private detective Henri (Harry-Max), who instead introduces him to the new exciting line of business managed by Monsieur Blady (Falcon). Antoine starts his new vocation with great passion although his stalking skill is a far cry from professional. Truffaut's perspicacious insight of urban savvy is brought to the fore in this segment, mainly surrounding two cases, a subtle love triangle about a (closeted) man looking for his magician lover and a more detailed inside-job, where Antoine is assigned to undercover in a shoe shop owned by Georges Tabard (Lonsdale, a great scene-stealer), who wants the agency to find out why he is so disliked by everyone around him, but the irony is that during Georges' loquacious introduction of his background, the reason behind that is pretty crystal-clear. During the course, Antoine is hopelessly having a crush with Georges' wife Fabienne (Seyrig, enigmatic and fabulously seductive), the apotheosis of a woman's sheer perfection. He is torn between his unquenchable fascination to Fabienne and the on-and-off relationship with Christine, which extracts the most vehement outburst in the mirror scenes where Antoine's unfitting characteristic is pungently reflected, with the iterations of self-persuasion and self-boost, to no avail. Eventually after tasting the temptation, which costs him the second job, he reconciles with Christine in the cutesy chapter where he works as a TV repairman, but the uncertainty of his own feelings becomes more pronounced in the coda, where a stalker makes a wanton confession to Christine in the presence of Antoine, both dismiss at him on the spot, but think twice, it is the capriciousness of love and emotions that will certainly puzzle Antoine, and trigger every viewer, to discover what will happen to him and Christine later, aka. in BED & BOARD (1970), approximately after a two-years spell.STOLEN KISSES is charming in its carefree tempo and disarming in its frankness about whimsical triviality, it is not a major or challenging piece of work from Truffaut, but still scintillates with the profundity of a intelligent life-observer, an obliging humorist and an inspiring filmmaker.

By the end of The 400 Blows we see young Jean-Pierre Leaud looking out to the sea to an uncertain future after he escaped from juvenile detention.In Stolen Kisses, we catch up with him as a young adult trying to find a place in life but hopelessly all at sea.Antoine Doinel plays Jean-Pierre Leaud as geeky, gawky, awkward, and rebellious.He has been dishonourably discharged from the army. He gets a telling off from his superior office about the youth of today. Antoine pulls funny faces at this point to highlight his nonchalant attitude. Antoine then proceeds to steal his uniform, go back to Paris and have sex with a prostitute.Antoine then goes to see his on/off girlfriend who he has not written to to for some time when he was at the army. We suspect that she is seeing someone else and we later note that she is also being followed.Antoine who is uneducated, lacking a lot of skills even common sense haphazardly goes through a series of jobs. He becomes a night- watchman at a hotel which lasts one night because he was blagged by a private detective. Luckily the detective gets him a job at his detective agency. Although he learns some skills he is still inept but he is planted at Tobard's shoe shop as the boss wants to know what his staff think about him. Like the film The Graduate, the boss's older wife has designs for him.All the time he has this on/off relationship with bourgeois beautiful girlfriend Christine which blows hot and cold. She seems aloof and distant one minute and desires him the next. He also has trouble relating to her, I never understood why he never wrote to her for months when he was in the army. At one point Antoine takes her out to a stakeout when following a magician and leaves her behind at a club.For someone who was a detective Antoine does not realise that Christine is being stalked by someone else.The film is a screwball comedy about love and obsession and two young people getting together awkwardly at a time when the young people of France felt displaced.Again François Truffaut is well served by his alter-ego Antoine Doinel who has the boyish, charming and goofy quality that brings out the humour. His persona is different from The 400 Blows where we felt that he might end up being a petty criminal lost in some underclass.

After a stint in the army, Antoine Doinel is released from active duty because of insubordination and ineptitude. The releasing officer does not have kind words for the soon to be civilian young man. As he comes out from the place, he does not take long to find his way to have sex with a prostitute and to reclaim his humble abode in a run down apartment.Antoine is lucky in getting a position at a hotel thanks to the parents of Christine, his on and off girlfriend. It is obvious Antoine is not fit for the position as he bungles a situation where a cheating wife is surprised with her lover in a room where the reception clerk is duped by the older P.I. behind the case. The older detective feels bad for having caused Antoine's the loss of his job and recommends him to apply for a job with his agency.The detective agency proves to be no different from Antoine's previous experiences. His best success in a case is when his superior asks him to infiltrate the shoe store owned by M. Tabard, who feels his employees simply hate him and wants to find out what is he doing wrong. No one is happier to meet Antoine than Fabienne Tabard, the stylish wife of the owner; she sees in Antoine a man she can seduce and who will appreciate her charms. "Stolen Kisses" is a continuation on Francois Truffaut's take on the character that first was examined in his "400 Blows". It is a picaresque comedy because the way Antoine sees the world around him, a society where he does not fit snugly. Mr. Truffaut made a few films around his Antoine Doinel and this one, even 44 years after it was released, still is enjoyable to watch. It is light in tone as the inept young hero of the story goes from one occupation to the next without not knowing where his future will take him. His girlfriend Christine Darbon, is an afterthought in the narrative, although by the end Antoine gets serious about getting more involved, and in a way, settled with the lovely young lady.It would have been inconceivable to think anyone else but Jean-Pierre Leaud, the original Antoine of a few years before, not playing him again. Mr. Leaud had a good working with Mr. Truffaut as they collaborated on different projects together. Best thing in the film is the elegant Delphine Seyrig, playing Fabienne Tabbard, a sophisticated seductress that captures Antoine's vivid imagination. Claude Jade appears as the sweet Christine, the woman Antoine desires. Michael Lonsdale is also perfect as M. Tabard, the shoe store owner. "Stolen Kisses" remains among Francois Truffaut most best comedies, which seen today, evokes a bygone era and the atmosphere of a bygone period in Paris, which was lovingly photographed by Denys Clerval, with a musical score by Antoine Duhanel.

The movie focuses an intermezzo in the life of a young guy who is in search of himself and apparently doesn't succeed to find himself from the begin to the end of the intermezzo. His first failure is with the military service. He volunteered by himself (nobody forced him to serve in the army, he thought that it was a possible move) but a few time later, realized that the career in the army had nothing to do with himself and didn't feared to be discharged dishonourably. During the hole intermezzo, he is in love with a girl who doesn't care about him. He experiments several professional activities and fails to succeed in all of them, not because he is stupid, but, rather, because he refuses to play the role that each professional activity demands. The outsider trait of his personality always prevails. This outsider style doesn't lead him to any kind of progress or evolution. He is the same from the begin to the end, and this fact is negative in the sens that he is not an example to be followed by any one who is also in search of himself. The first time I saw baisers volés, more than 45 years ago, I was fascinated by the nouvelle vague and didn't pay attention to the aspects I pointed out here above. Now that I'm more experienced in existential issues, I'm more connected to these aspects. To conclude my critics, I would like to say that the song of Charles Trenet, "Que Reste-t-il de Nos Amours", is much more beautiful and profound than the tribulations of the young outsider Antoine Doinel.