Stolen Kisses

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Stolen Kisses (Baisers Volés)

Directed by	François Truffaut
Produced by	François Truffaut Marcel Berbert
Written by	François Truffaut
Starring	Jean-Pierre Léaud Claude Jade Delphine Seyrig
Release date(s)	August 14, 1968
Running time	90 min.
Language	French
IMDb profile

Stolen Kisses (Baisers volés) is a French film directed by François Truffaut, released in 1968.

Follows the "Adventures of Antoine Doinel" from The 400 Blows and begins his relation to Christine; it is followed by Bed & Board and Love on the Run.

1 Plot
2 Casting
3 Cast
4 Critics
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud) loves his new sweetheart, violinist Christine Darbon (Claude Jade). Christine is with friends when he drops by, and her parents must entertain Antoine themselves. After she learns that Antoine has returned from military service, she goes to greet him at his new job as a hotel night clerk. It is a promising sign that perhaps this time, the romance will turn out happily for Antoine.

Later, Christine attempts to guess Antoine's latest job, amusingly tossing out guesses like cab driver or water taster. By the film's end, Antoine has become a TV repairman. He has been holding a grudge against Christine, so she wins him back by calling his company for TV repair service. The company sends Antoine, who is then forced to stay for hours trying to fix an irreparable TV. Morning finds the two of them in bed together.

The film's final scene shows the newly engaged Antoine and Christine, strolling in the park. A strange man who has trailed Christine for days approaches the couple and declares his love for Christine. He describes his love as “definitive” and unlike the “temporary” love of “temporary people”. When he walks away, Christine explains that the man must be mad. Antoine, recognising similarities in much of his own previous behaviour, admits, “He must be”.

[edit] Casting

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."^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Cast

Jean-Pierre Léaud (Antoine Doinel)
Claude Jade (Christine Darbon)
Daniel Ceccaldi (Christine's father)
Claire Duhamel (Christine's mother)
Delphine Seyrig (Fabienne Tabard)
Michael Lonsdale (Georges Tabard)

[edit] Critics

François Truffaut directing Jean-Pierre Léaud and Claude Jade on the set of Baisers Volés, 1968

"Stolen Kisses" was loved by critics all over the world. An article from the New York Times published March 4, 1969, said: "With what can only be described as cinematic grace, Truffaut's point of view slips in and out of Antoine so that something that on the surface looks like a conventional movie eventually becomes as fully and carefully populated as a Balzac novel. There is not a silly or superfluous incident, character, or camera angle in the movie. Truffaut is the star of the film, always in control, whether the movie is ranging into the area of slapstick, lyrical romance or touching lightly on DeGaulle's France (a student demonstration on the TV screen). His love of old movies is reflected in plot devices (overheard conversations), incidental action (two children walking out of a drug store wearing Laurel and Hardy masks), and in the score, which takes Charles Trenet's 1943 song, known here as "I Wish You Love," and turns it into a joyous motif."