SHREWSBURY FILM SOCIETY
| Director | François Truffaut |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Year | 1968 |
Baiser Volés (Stolen Kisses) is one of François Truffaut’s most generous and affectionate films, a work so full of love for its characters, for cinema itself and for the fragile absurdities of human behaviour that it seems to breathe with a kind of lyrical spontaneity. It continues the story of Antoine Doinel, the adolescent rebel of The 400 Blows, now ten years older and discharged from the army for being temperamentally unfit. Jean?Pierre Léaud returns to the role with a mixture of mischief, innocence and quicksilver charm. His face, part cartoon cat and part saint, becomes the film’s emotional compass as he stumbles through a series of chaotic Parisian adventures.
Antoine’s journey begins with a string of odd jobs. He works briefly as a hotel night clerk, then finds himself improbably employed as a private detective. His ineptitude in the role is spectacular, yet Truffaut treats his failures with warmth rather than ridicule. The film’s humour is rooted in character rather than farce, and even its most slapstick moments feel grounded in Antoine’s essential good nature. Truffaut’s affection for him is unmistakable. Antoine is a kind of Parisian Huckleberry Finn, committed to life even if he cannot quite master its rituals.
The detective agency plotline introduces one of the film’s most memorable episodes. A shoe shop owner, played with priceless comic precision by Michael Lonsdale, hires the agency to discover why everyone detests him. He is convinced there can be no legitimate reason. His wife, played by Delphine Seyrig, is the cool, enigmatic older woman who becomes the object of Antoine’s infatuation. Their encounter in his small flat is one of the most erotic non?sex scenes in Truffaut’s cinema. She approaches the situation with pragmatic logic, pointing out that since they are both unique and exceptional, there is no reason they should not sleep together. Antoine, overwhelmed, can only agree.
Yet the film is not simply a collection of romantic interludes. It is a portrait of a young man trying to connect with the world, and Truffaut’s point of view slips in and out of Antoine with cinematic grace. What begins as a conventional narrative gradually reveals itself to be as fully populated and carefully observed as a Balzac novel. Every character, no matter how briefly seen, feels alive. Claude Jade appears as Christine, Antoine’s sometime fiancée, whose presence brings a note of sincerity and emotional steadiness. Harry Max plays the elderly detective who mentors Antoine, adding another layer to the film’s affectionate depiction of intergenerational relationships.
Truffaut’s love of cinema permeates the film. It is dedicated to Henri Langlois of the Cinémathèque Française, and references to film history appear throughout. Two children walk out of a drugstore wearing Laurel and Hardy masks. Overheard conversations become plot devices. The score transforms Charles Trenet’s 1943 song, known in English as I Wish You Love, into a recurring motif that binds the film’s moods together. These touches place Baisers Volés within the lineage of films about cinephilia, alongside works like Day for Night and The 400 Blows.
The film also glances lightly at the social and political climate of late 1960s France. A student demonstration flickers across a television screen, a reminder of the unrest simmering beyond Antoine’s personal dramas. Yet Truffaut never forces the point. His social observations are woven casually into the fabric of the story, giving the film a sense of lived reality without weighing it down.
The ending, which should not be revealed, offers a twist that italicises everything that has come before. It is not a twist of plot but of perspective, a moment that reframes Antoine’s journey with a mixture of humour and poignancy. Baisers Volés is a film of grace, warmth and human complexity, a work that feels both spontaneous and meticulously crafted. It is one of Truffaut’s most enduring achievements, a celebration of love in all its awkward, unpredictable forms.
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