Baisers volés

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.

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 (for me) has got to be one the most beautiful film ever made. All of the films in the Antoine Doinel cycle are brilliant (even the half-baked "Love On The Run" is still quite enjoyable). But "Stolen Kisses" hits a spot, which films seem to never hit. It captures an age of awkwardness that seems to be ignored...the early twenties. Not like a typical high school or after college film (ie: "Risky Business" or "Graduate"), "Stolen Kisses" is about learning the survival skills to make it to adulthood (whether it's keeping a job, or making it in love). Antoine Doinel is in the third cycle of the series ("400 Blows" and "Love At Twenty/ Antoine And Collette" being it's predecessor), and Antoine has just been dishonourably discharged from the army for being of unstable character. Antoine haphazzardly begins to go through jobs, trying to find his nitch in life, while being obsessed with love. He begins as a nightwatchman of a hotel, to being a private detective of Blady's, which puts him as a planted spy in Monsieur Tobard's Shoe Shop, and finally settling down as an accident prone TV Repair man. Antoine is the awkward anti-hero youth of the sixties. During the 68' Paris riots (which were unbelievably carrying on during the filming), the youth of France had a sort of displaced position in the work force. Antoine (superbly played by Jean-Pierre Leaud) typlifies this kind of youth. He is full of nervous energy, politically working class, is love lorn, and uneducated. He is full of human qualities that are real and relateable. He lies, he loves, he fails, and he succeeds. He is just as much as the "everyman" of France, as Jimmy Stewart was in America. But interestingly, where he has once resembled director Francois Truffaut in the earlier works, he now was metamorphasising into Jean-Pierre Leaud's character, but resembling Truffaut more in look. Antoine Doinel was never meant to be just Truffaut, but Leaud as well. And the confusion of this identity is brilliantly displayed as Antoine confirms his identity by manically reciting his name in a mirror, displaying his search for identity to the point of near madness. The beautiful Clade Jade gives an underated performance as the hip, bourgoise student, that makes Antoine's obsessiveness seem somehow justified. The girl that is loved best by Antoine, when out of reach. The film also has a theme, about the differing strengths of love. When Antoine is in love with Christine, she doesn't love him. When Antoine loves Fabienne (the shoe shop's owner's wife), Christine is in love with Antoine. Every character is immersed in a love triangle. And asks the question, "Does love really ever exist on an equal basis?" But aside from the romantic cynicism, also lays some of the most romantic cinematic moments in history. The scene in which we follow up the stairs to find Antoine and Christine laying in bed peacefully, and the morning after, where Antoine purposes to Christne (with what looks like a fancy spoon or bottle opener, taking the place of a real ring?) is one of the most poetic moments in film history. The music score is fantastic as well as the cinematography gentle and sweet. For some, the ending is somewhat confusing and abrupt. But only shows, that the man that now stalks Christine with such passion, is now looked at by Antoine as resembling his once passionate feelings for her, that no longer burn with the same intensity. A bittersweet opening to the followup "Bed And Board". This film is a classic on all accounts!!! A must see, and my favourite film of ALL TIME!!! I rate it a 15 out of 10!!!

"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.