roland-scialom The movie focuses an intermezzo in the life of a young guy who is in search of himself and apparently doesn't succeed to find himself from the begin to the end of the intermezzo. His first failure is with the military service. He volunteered by himself (nobody forced him to serve in the army, he thought that it was a possible move) but a few time later, realized that the career in the army had nothing to do with himself and didn't feared to be discharged dishonourably. During the hole intermezzo, he is in love with a girl who doesn't care about him. He experiments several professional activities and fails to succeed in all of them, not because he is stupid, but, rather, because he refuses to play the role that each professional activity demands. The outsider trait of his personality always prevails. This outsider style doesn't lead him to any kind of progress or evolution. He is the same from the begin to the end, and this fact is negative in the sens that he is not an example to be followed by any one who is also in search of himself. The first time I saw baisers volés, more than 45 years ago, I was fascinated by the nouvelle vague and didn't pay attention to the aspects I pointed out here above. Now that I'm more experienced in existential issues, I'm more connected to these aspects. To conclude my critics, I would like to say that the song of Charles Trenet, "Que Reste-t-il de Nos Amours", is much more beautiful and profound than the tribulations of the young outsider Antoine Doinel.

fedor8 A dweeb who lacks charisma gets dishonorably discharged from the army, and then goes through a series of different jobs and women. This is as much plot as you'll get in this typical French (read = European) drama without a plot or a real point.But hang on. After finishing the movie, I was informed by various movie catalogs that this is a comedy. Comedy?!! Leonard Maltin calls this an "alternately touching and hilarious film". Touching and hilarious? What movie was he watching??? I tell you, there is absolutely NOTHING touching about this movie. The movie is emotionally uninvolving. And there wasn't one funny moment in the entire picture – unless you consider French humour funny. In fact, French humour is so unfunny that it is difficult for the non-connoisseur to even identify which bits are supposed to be funny. Maltin was probably referring, for example, to the early scene when an elderly detective catches a customer's wife cheating on him with another man. Is this supposed to be funny? Good Lord, if this is funny what isn't? It's a badly-directed scene with bad acting, absurd reactions by the characters, haphazardly put together. And that's funny… Maltin further "informs" us that the dweeb is "inept but likable". Likable?! This man is so charismatic he makes the likes of Kyle MacLachlan seem like Sean Connery of Clark Gable by comparison. In another movie catalog I am informed that the dweeb is more-or-less Truffaut himself, i.e. the movie is autobiographical. Fair enough. If Truffaut was a dweeb, that's his problem. I am also informed by BOTH reviews that this movie is considered as Truffaut's best by many!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What are his other movies like then… Don't get me wrong. The movie is by no means a disaster. It is watchable, which is the most important thing, and the photography is solid. But there is nothing here that will make you laugh (unless you laugh at other French films), and there is certainly nothing touching here. The dweeb sleeps with prostitutes, falls in "love" easily, flirts for years with a girl who is probably frigid and played by an actress who is probably even less interesting than he is. A stone-faced actress. Which brings me to the acting. Some of the cast aren't particularly good. And Truffaut, the "great director", occasionally offers us scenes that are, for want of a better word, "off". There is clumsiness in the editing, and clumsiness in scenes with many characters.If you could just forget that this was done by one of the supposed "greats of cinema", and watch this without knowing anything about the movie, you'd have to be lying if you thought this was anything but an average movie.By the way, Maltin also calls this "one of the best treatments of young love ever put on the screen". This comes from a man who thinks that "Teenage Caveman" is a better movie than "Blade Runner". 'Nuff said.(Sick and tired of bad European dramas? Email me, and I'll send you my altered subtitles for various Bergman films, plus "Der Untergang".)

Claudio Carvalho 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")

MartinHafer This is an odd movie--not bad, but rather odd. The main character is a bit of a bumbler that seems to screw up most jobs. He manages to get thrown out of the army, lose the job as a doorman as well as that of a private detective. Along the way, he stops to have sex with a couple prostitutes and the wife of one of his clients while working as the detective. Apart from that, as the film begins his obsessive love for his girlfriend, though she seems a bit cold. Later, their feelings for each other seem to flip-flop. At the end, they both seem to have about equally strong feelings about each other--when a strange man comes out of nowhere for the movie's punchline. Does all this sound like a comedy? Well, while it has some mildly humorous moments, I didn't think it was particularly funny and the story just seemed to be lacking a certain something. I kept waiting for it to get better and to have more of a point, but to no avail.While I really like foreign films, I sometimes am frustrated by the incredibly unfinished style many "great" films possess. While this makes them different from boring and conventional Hollywood fare, sometimes I feel annoyed at what, to me, seems like sloppy writing or the refusal to hire and utilize an editor. I know this all makes me sound like a real nut, but some of Truffaut's movies could use a good editing or re-write--such as this one, Mississippi Mermaid and Confidentially Yours. Others, such as The Wild Child, The Story of Adele H., The Last Metro and Shoot The Pianist, seem much tighter and cohesive.