Besos robados

After being discharged from the army for insubordination, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) visits his former girlfriend Christine Darbon (Claude Jade), and her father finds a temporary job of night watchman for Antoine in a hotel. The naive Antoine is deceived by a private eye in his first night shift, and fired on the next morning. The investigator invites the clumsy Antoine to work in his company, where he is assigned for some minor jobs, until he has to investigate why the owner of a shoes store, Mr. Georges Tabard (Michel Lonsdale), is detested by his employees. Meanwhile Antoine falls in love for the gorgeous Mrs. Fabienne Tabard (Delphine Seyrig).

"Baisers Volés" is a delightful romantic comedy of François Truffault. Using his alter-ego, Antoine Doinel, this movie pictures the romantic and very funny adventures of this character in Paris with prostitutes, with his girlfriend and with his married passion. The soundtrack, with song "Que reste-t-il de nos amours?" of Léo Chauliac, is simply wonderful. This classic story is still charming and not dated almost forty years later. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Beijos Roubados" ("Stolen Kisses")

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.

"Stolen Kisses" is about Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Leaud, in an exquisite performance), part of a three-film cycle about this young man who is trying to figure out life, love, and where and with whom he belongs.

In the beginning of the film, Antoine is dishonorably discharged from the army and thus his job hunt begins. He's really not very good as a gift-wrapper, or as the night watchman at a hotel, or as a private detective. The detective job takes up most of the film. He is dispatched to work undercover in a shoe shop to find out why nobody likes the boss. He falls head over heels for the boss' stunningly beautiful wife Fabienne. We also see Antoine dealing with his on-again, off-again relationship with his girlfriend Christine, who wants him when he doesn't want her, and vice versa.

Accompanied by a beautiful music score and set in '60s Paris, "Stolen Kisses" is a whimsical, sometimes cynical film about different levels of love (often existing in one relationship), the search for self, and for loving the unattainable. The follow-up is "Bed and Board."

I watched this film knowing that it was the sequel to Truffaut's the 400 Blows, but I couldn't help doubting that the protagonists for the two movies were one and the same. I know Stolen Kisses takes place nine years after, but something wasn't right. Maybe it was that this film was more comedic, maybe the character was different, maybe the world was different. I don't know. It is like the Antoine of Bizarro World.

Standing by itself, Stolen Kisses is a terrific film about a mediocrity. Antoine can't hold a job, and he can't even hold a woman. He kisses his girlfriend as he would kiss a prostitute - awkward and rough. Upon meeting a private detective (modeled after Andre Bazin - Truffaut's mentor), Antoine gets a job spying on the workers of a shoe store owner who claims everyone hates him. There, he falls into lust with the bosses high-society wife.

At the end of the film, Antoine is forced to compromise and marry his old girlfriend for whom he may or may not feel any true love. The point is that she is there to support him and love him. He is the elevated statue of desire to her just as the shoe store owner's wife was to him.

All in all, this movie is exceedingly well done by the Great Truffaut, but I just couldn't get past the fact that Antoine was the same boy I last saw escaping from a juvenille hall and running to the ocean in a moment of personal victory from a society that didn't really want him. Something in this film did not match up with the previous one.

For the role of Christine Darbon, Truffaut cast a nineteen-year-old actress, Claude Jade, who had impressed him in the stage play Enrico IV. Truffaut had been "completely taken by her beauty, her manners, her kindness, and her joie de vivre." Her polite upbringing and charismatic girl-next-door quality, as far as Truffaut was concerned, made Claude Jade perfect for the role of the pure-hearted Christine who would eventually win Antoine's heart.

As Christine, Claude Jade is as cute as a button and her scenes are often the most charming ones in the film. Her introductory scene, stepping out of the Parisian night appearing like an angel to wave shyly at Antoine through a glass wall, is a delight. Later, Christine attempts to guess Antoine's latest job, amusingly tossing out way-off-the-mark guesses like cab driver or water taster. It is a ticklish scene but also hints that Christine, as of yet, doesn't think so highly of Antoine's employable skills. By the film's end, Antoine has become a TV repairman. He has been holding a grudge against Christine, so she wins him back in a fetching manner. She calls his company for service even as she is removing a component from her TV. The company sends Antoine, who is then forced to stay for hours trying to fix an irreparable TV.

The best romantic scene in the film, however, is a quaint breakfast scene one morning in Christine's kitchen. Christine is busy teaching Antoine how to butter toast. Antoine, for his part, wishes to pose a question to her. Too embarrassed to express himself in words, he writes his question on a notepad instead and hands it to her. She immediately writes her reply and hands it back to him. They continue in this manner for a few more exchanges before Antoine withdraws a scissor from a nearby drawer and hangs it on Christine's ring finger. It is a touching and intimate moment between the two young lovers and communicates, without intrusive words, their affection for one another.