Baisers volés

The army life just wasn't made for you, after three years of detention they're all through, you're discharged from a shared cell, you get a job in a hotel, you find Christine, who you continue to pursue. A night porter's not the perfect role in truth, but it creates an opportunity to sleuth, as a private detective, you need to keep your perspective, it's a challenge for disoriented youth. As a spy inside a shoe shop you observe, the owners sexy wife you have to serve, there's an age gap but connection, that results in an inspection, forces you to make your next, career move. You get called out, to fix the telly of Christine, it's fair to say that a repair job's not your dream, you don't really have a clue, where you're going, what to do, but there's a chance, you've caught the girl, in your crossbeam.

An often hilarious continuation of Antoine Doinel's life, leaves you reflecting on similar scenarios in your own formative years. Great performances and great direction.

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")

Taking its title from the lyrics of the glorious chanson 'Que reste-t-il de nos amours' of Louis Chauliac and Charles Trenet this gentle, subtle and captivating film must surely rank as one of Truffaut's finest. Actor Jean-Pierre Leaud is not unlike Marmite; one either loves him............ There is no doubting that his portrayal of Truffaut's alter-ego Antoine Doinel is Leaud at his most appealing. I do not really count his performance at the age of fourteen in 'Quatre cent coups' as that is indisputably one of the great child performances on film and Leaud had not yet acquired the mannerisms of adulthood that many find so annoying. In this he plays an aimless dreamer who lands a job in a private detective agency following his 'discharge' from the army. This occupation naturally brings him into contact with some decidedly quirky colleagues and clients notably shoe shop proprietor Tabard who wants to know why none of his staff likes him. He meets the seductive Madame Tabard and gets the sack for mixing business with pleasure. We next see him as a television repairman! The segment with the Tabards is undoubtedly the highlight of the film. Michel Lonsdale is an exceptional actor who never disappoints and is probably most familiar to non-Gallic audiences as the chief investigating officer in 'Day of the Jackal'. What can one say of the divine Delphine Seyrig? One should never make the mistake of confusing actresses with the parts they play but in this she is utterly intoxicating. We also have a tantalising glimpse of Marie-France Pisier who was to feature prominently in the last of the Doinel series 'Love on the Run', to which she contributed the screenplay. Whilst that is probaly the weakest of the lot, made by Truffaut in a desperate attempt to refill the empty coffers, the next episode 'Bed and Breakfast' is very amusing. The film under review is undoubtedly the best of the three 'adult' Doinels. An enchanting piece full of surprises which can be revisited with delight.

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.

This is absolutely my favourite Truffaut film. Being a film which is based on real events in Truffaut's life (like most of his films), this film shows who Truffaut liked to be (looked at). The charismatic Jean-Pierre Léaud completes this image perfectly. The wonderful soundtrack makes it even better.

Some might say that this film is less revolutionary than his nouvelle vague stuff, but this film is much more effective and up-to-date. It is the funniest and most interesting part of the Doinel-series, which, sadly, had to be finished with the worthless L'amour en fuite.

Watching this film makes you understand what Truffaut thinks about himself, and the 'family-business'of movie making. Watching this film combined with La nuit Américaine, and you'll know what Truffaut really is about. This film steals more than your kisses. It might steal you heart.