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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.

"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.

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.

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.