Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47700 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-08-24
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

Amazon.com
Eight years after the wry romantic sketch Antoine and Colette, François Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Léaud reunited to catch up with Truffaut's cinematic alter ego, Antoine Doinel, the troubled adolescent of The 400 Blows. Stolen Kisses opens with the now-grown Doinel sprung from military prison with a dishonorable discharge, drawn directly from Truffaut's own history of delinquency, but the parallels end there. Lovesick Doinel woos the perky but unresponsive object of his affections, Christine (Claude Jade) while he engages in a series of professions--hotel night watchman, private investigator, TV repairman--with mixed success and comic entanglements. But when he falls in love with the elegant wife of his client (Delphine Seyrig at her most beautiful and charming), Christine realizes she misses Antoine's persistence and clumsy passes, so she embarks on a seductive plan of her own. Truffaut's comic confection is full of deadpan gags and screwball chaos, a world away from the heavy seriousness of The 400 Blows, and Léaud is endearingly naive as the determined Doinel, forging ahead with more pluck and passion than aptitude. It may be Truffaut's most sweetly romantic film, a knowing man's embrace of eager innocence and storybook sentiment. Doinel returns two years later in Bed and Board. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Excellent Film; Poor DVD Edition
I have to respectfully disagree with the first reviewer. While "Stolen Kisses" might not be as powerful as the "The 400 Blows," it stands as one of the best treatments on film of the adolescent exploration of love andsexuality. However, I will warn readers who are already fans of this film that this DVD version is nothing exceptional. Its main advantage is that, until recently, Stolen Kisses has been out of print and, in many cases, available only in an English-dubbed version. Make no mistake, Stolen Kisses is an excellent film and a worthy successor to The 400 Blows; however, there is little to distinguish this DVD version from its VHS counterpart. The colors are dull, the image quality is below average, the scene access offers a mere six markers, and there are no real "special" features. As I have come to expect from Fox Lorber's collection of Godard and Truffaut films, quality is sporadic. If only Fox Lorber was more interested in the quality of its issues than in the quantity of the output. I think DVD collectors would be willing to wait and pay a few extra dollars for truly distinguished issues like "Jules and Jim" or "My Life to Live".

one of the greatest films ever
i wouldn't say that about too many films but this one has it all - romance, humor, sex, etc, etc. It's truffaut's masterpiece so it's a masterpiece by one of the greatest. wow! buy it!

Charming romantic comedy that really is funny
This is a delightful Truffaut movie starring Jean-Pierre Leaud who played Antoine Doinel, the running boy in Truffaut's famous Les Quatre cents coup (1959). He's a young man now just discharged from the army bouncing from one temporary job to another, from being a night watchman to being a TV repairman. He gets into scrapes and gets fired, but presses on (in-between impulsive liaisons with ladies of the evening).

He gets his big chance when he lucks into a job with a private detective agency. After some mishaps he is called upon to take a job (within a job, as it were) at a shoe store to find out why the owner is not liked. There he meets the owner's wife, Fabienne Tabard, played by Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad 1961; The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1972, etc.). He is immediately smitten by her. In typical French cinematic fashion it is not clear whether she is a goddess or a maternal figure for the thoroughly bewitched Antoine.

Meanwhile there is Christine Darbon (Claude Jade) who plays Antoine's real love interest. What makes this film so thoroughly agreeable is Truffaut's light-hearted wit and his studious avoidance of cliche in a genre (the romantic comedy) in which cliches abound. The humor is often tongue-in-cheek, and as subtle as a diplomat's compliment. Leaud's charm and his oh so earnest style make him the perfect foil for life's little jokes. Along the way detective agencies are satirized as are its clientele, including a guy who wants his magician boyfriend tailed only to find that he is--horrors!--married, or the aforementioned shoe haberdasher who hires a private eye (not a shrink!) to find out why he is not beloved.

Bottom line: see this for Francois Truffaut, whose keen sense of humanity's foibles and unique style, sometimes playful and sometimes penetrating, have made him one of cinema's greatest directors.