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{{Short description|1968 French New Wave romantic comedy film by François Truffaut}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Stolen Kisses
| image          = Baisers_voles.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| native_name    = {{Infobox name module|fr|Baisers volés}}
| director       = [[François Truffaut]]
| writer         = {{Plainlist|
* François Truffaut
* [[Claude de Givray]]
* Bernard Revon
}}
| producer       = {{Plainlist|
* François Truffaut
* Marcel Berbert
}}
| starring       = <!-- Per the poster billing block -->{{Plainlist|
* [[Jean-Pierre Léaud]]
* [[Delphine Seyrig]]
* [[Claude Jade]]
* [[Michael Lonsdale]]
* [[Harry-Max]]
* [[André Falcon]]
* [[Daniel Ceccaldi]]
}}
| cinematography = [[Denys Clerval]]
| editing        = [[Agnès Guillemot]]
| music          = [[Antoine Duhamel]]
| studio         = {{Plainlist|
* Les Films du Carrosse
* [[United Artists|Les Productions Artistes Associés]]
}}
| distributor    = Les Artistes Associés
| released       = {{film date|df=y|1968|08|14|[[Avignon Film Festival]]|1968|09|04|France}}
| runtime        = 91 minutes
| country        = France
| language       = French
| budget         = $350,000<ref name="tino">{{cite book |last=Balio |first=Tino |title=United Artists: The Company That Changed the Film Industry |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]] |year=1987 |page=282 |isbn=978-0-2991-1440-4}}</ref>
| gross          = $1.5 million<ref name="tino"/><br>1,156,101 admissions (France)<ref>[http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.com.au&sl=fr&u=http://www.boxofficestory.com/box-office-francois-truffaut-c25718972&usg=ALkJrhiA0vtcY2z6GoKzSP57g_NZe1-m-Q Box Office information for Francois Truffaut films] at Box Office Story</ref>
}}
'''''Stolen Kisses''''' ({{langx|fr|Baisers Volés}}) is a 1968 [[French New Wave]] [[romantic comedy]] film directed by [[François Truffaut]], starring [[Jean-Pierre Léaud]], [[Delphine Seyrig]], and [[Claude Jade]]. It continues the story of the character [[Antoine Doinel]], whom Truffaut had previously depicted in ''[[The 400 Blows]]'' (1959) and the short film ''[[Antoine and Colette]]'' (1962). In this film, Antoine begins his relationship with [[Antoine Doinel#Christine Darbon|Christine Darbon]], which is depicted further in the last two films in the series, ''[[Bed and Board (film)|Bed & Board]]'' (1970) and ''[[Love on the Run (1979 film)|Love on the Run]]'' (1979).

The original French title of the film comes from a line in [[Charles Trenet]]'s song "[[Que reste-t-il de nos amours ?]]," which is also used as the film's signature tune. The film was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film]].<ref name="Oscars1969">{{Cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1969 |title=The 41st Academy Awards (1969) Nominees and Winners |access-date=2011-11-15|publisher=[[Academy Award]]s}}</ref>

The film begins with a pan onto the locked gates of the [[Cinémathèque Française]], then based at the [[Palais de Chaillot]]. On the gates, there is a sign 'Relache' ('Closed'). This is Truffaut's reference to the [[Henri Langlois|Affaire Langlois]] when the head of the Cinémathèque had been fired by the French government. He was eventually reinstated after filmmakers such as Truffaut used all their wiles to foment protest.

==Plot==
Antoine Doinel, now a young man, is discharged from the army as unfit, because he prefers to read novels and write to his sweetheart, violinist Christine Darbon, than to obey his superiors. He has written to Christine voluminously (but, she says, not always nicely) while in the military, sometimes more than once a day. However, she never wrote him back.

Christine is away skiing with friends when Antoine arrives at her house, and her parents must entertain him themselves, though they are glad to see him. After learning that Antoine needs a job, Christine's parents help him get hired as a night clerk in the Hôtel Alsina, where he spends most of his time reading. Christine goes to see him there, and, after not seeing each other for such a long time, they seem to hit it off. One morning, a man accompanied by a private detective makes Antoine lead them to a room where a woman has recently checked in. The woman turns out to be the man's wife and is sharing the bed with someone else when Antoine and company enter her room. Furious, the woman's husband starts trashing the room. Antoine gets blamed for the resulting commotion and loses his job. However, he later strikes up a friendship with the detective and gets hired at the latter's agency.

Antoine's detective friend teaches him the tricks of trade. One day while following someone, Antoine runs into  Colette (the object of his infatuation in ''Antoine and Colette'') who has married a man named Albert Tazzi and has a child. The job, however, separates Antoine from Christine, as trying to pay attention to her and shadow people at the same time starts to be too much for him. One evening, Georges Tabard, the owner of a shoe store, visits the agency wanting to find out why no one seems to like him. Despite never having worked in a store and being quite clumsy, Antoine poses as a stock boy to solve that mystery. Soon, he falls for Georges's wife, Fabienne, who willingly seduces him. Smitten with her and seeing his current romantic situation as hopeless, Antoine breaks up with Christine, saying he has never "admired" her. The agency starts to suspect that Fabienne is cheating on their client, and Antoine is forced to come clean. The same day he is fired from the agency, his detective mentor passes away.

Antoine eventually becomes a TV repairman and avoids Christine at all costs. One day, his poor driving skills make him crash a van into the car of Christine's dad. However, no one is harmed. Christine's dad forgives him and later talks to his daughter about Antoine's new job. To win him back, Christine deliberately disables her TV and calls Antoine's company for repairs while her parents are away. The company sends Antoine, whose lack of skills makes him try for hours to fix a TV that is only missing a tube. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Christine reconciles with Antoine, and the two have sex. The next morning, without saying a word, Antoine proposes to her, and she accepts.

The newly engaged Antoine and Christine later stroll in a park. A man who has trailed Christine for days approaches the couple and declares his love for Christine. He describes his love as "permanent" and unlike the "temporary" love of "temporary people." When he walks away, Christine presumes that the man is insane. Antoine, recognising similarities in much of his own behaviour, admits, "He must be."

==Cast==
{{Cast listing|<!-- Order per the opening credits -->
* [[Jean-Pierre Léaud]] as [[Antoine Doinel]]
* [[Delphine Seyrig]] as Fabienne Tabard
* [[Claude Jade]] as [[Antoine Doinel#Christine Darbon|Christine Darbon]]
* [[Michael Lonsdale]] as Georges Tabard
* [[Harry-Max]] as Monsieur Henri
* [[André Falcon]] as Monsieur Blady, manager of the private detective agency
* [[Daniel Ceccaldi]] as Christine's father
* [[Claire Duhamel]] as Christine's mother
* Catherine Lutz as Catherine
* {{ill|Martine Ferrière|fr}} as Gérante
* [[Jacques Rispal]] as Monsieur Colin
* [[Serge Rousseau]] as unknown man
* {{ill|Paul Pavel|fr}} as Julien
* {{ill|François Darbon|fr}} as Chief Warrant Officer Picard
* {{ill|Albert Simono|fr|lt=Simono}} as Albani
* {{ill|Jacques Delord|fr}} as Robert Espannet, magician
* {{ill|Roger Trapp|fr}} as hotel manager (uncredited)
* [[Martine Brochard]] as M{{sup|me}} Colin (uncredited)
* Robert Cambouakis as M{{sup|me}} Colin's lover (uncredited)
* [[Marie-France Pisier]] as Colette Tazzi (uncredited)
* [[Jean-François Adam]] as Albert Tazzi (uncredited)
* Christine Pellé as Mademoiselle Ida (uncredited)
* {{ill|Jacques Robiolles|fr}} as writer (uncredited)
* Marcel Mercier as man at the garage (uncredited)
* Joseph Merieau as man at the garage (uncredited)<ref>{{cite book |last=Allen |first=Don |title=Finally Truffaut |location=New York |publisher=[[Beaufort Books]] |year=1985 |pages=229–230 |isbn=978-0-8253-0335-7 |oclc=12613514}}</ref>
}}

==References to other Truffaut films==
* Early in the film, Doinel can be seen reading a French translation of the 1947 [[William Irish]] (Cornell Woolrich) novel ''Waltz into Darkness'', the source of Truffaut's next film, ''[[Mississippi Mermaid]]''.
* In the first scene, Doinel reads ''[[Le Lys dans la vallée]]'' (''The Lily in the Valley''). 
* The character Colette Tazzi and her husband Albert make a brief cameo appearance. She chides Doinel for not contacting her, saying he did not use to be "afraid of the telephone". This is a reference to the plot of the 1962 ''Antoine and Colette''.

==Release==
===Critical response===
''Stolen Kisses'' was well-reviewed by critics all over the world. The film has an approval rating of 97% on [[review aggregator]] website [[Rotten Tomatoes]], based on 29 reviews, and an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus states: "''Stolen Kisses'' is a fine feature follow-up to ''The 400 Blows'', transforming Antoine Doinel into a sympathetic, silly, and romantic figure that carries to the series' end".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stolen_kisses | title=Stolen Kisses| website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] }}</ref> 

In an enthusiastic review for ''[[The New York Times]]'' (4 March 1969), [[Vincent Canby]] commented:<ref>[https://archive.today/20130419181647/http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?_r=2&res=EE05E7DF173FEE70BC4C53DFB5668382679EDE&oref=slogin&oref=login ''New York Times'' article]</ref>

{{blockquote|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 [[Honoré de Balzac|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 [[Charles de Gaulle|De Gaulle]]'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 the shoe store wearing [[Laurel and Hardy]] masks), and in the score, which takes [[Charles Trenet]]'s 1943 song [[Que reste-t-il de nos amours]] (known in an English-language version as "I Wish You Love") and turns it into a joyous motif.}}

Danny Peary called it "François Truffaut's witty, sad, insightful meditation on Love, encompassing passion, courtship, confusion, conflict, romance, jealousy, disloyalty, dishonesty, sex, conquest, and commitment (and second thoughts)."<ref>{{cite book|title=Guide for the Film Fanatic|last=Peary|first=Danny|author-link=Danny Peary|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|year=1986|location=New York|pages=405|isbn=	978-0-6716-1081-4|oclc=13581204}}</ref>

===Awards and nominations===
{| class="wikitable" width="95%"
|-
! width="5%"| Year
! width="25%"| Award ceremony
! width="40%"| Category
! width="20%"| Nominee
! width="10%"| Result
|-
| rowspan="4"|1970
| [[National Board of Review Awards 1970|NBR Awards]]
| Top Foreign Language Films
| ''Stolen Kisses''
| {{won}}
|-
| rowspan="3"|[[1973 National Society of Film Critics Awards|National Society of Film Critics Awards]]
| [[National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film|Best Film]]
| ''Stolen Kisses''
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director|Best Director]]
| François Truffaut
| {{won}}
|-
| [[National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress|Best Supporting Actress]]
| [[Delphine Seyrig]]
| {{won}}
|-
| rowspan=5|1969
| [[41st Academy Awards|Academy Awards]]
| [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|Best Foreign Language Film]]
| ''Stolen Kisses''
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[26th Golden Globe Awards|Golden Globe Awards]]
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film|Best Foreign Language Film]]
| ''Stolen Kisses''
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[French Syndicate of Cinema Critics]]
| [[Prix Méliès]]
| ''Stolen Kisses''
| {{won}}
|-
| rowspan="2"|[[1969 New York Film Critics Circle Awards|New York Film Critics Circle Awards]]
| [[New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress|Best Supporting Actress]]
| Delphine Seyrig
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay|Best Screenplay]]
| Bernard Revon, [[Claude de Givray]], [[François Truffaut]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| rowspan=2|1968
| [[Cahiers du cinéma]]
| [[Cahiers du cinéma's Annual Top 10 Lists|Annual Top 10 List]]
| François Truffaut
| {{draw|8th}}
|-
| [[Louis Delluc Prize|Prix Louis Delluc]]
| Best Film
| ''Stolen Kisses''
| {{won}}
|-
|}

==See also==
* [[List of submissions to the 41st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film]]
* [[List of French submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes}}
* [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/263-stolen-kisses ''Stolen Kisses''] – an essay by [[Andrew Sarris]] at [[The Criterion Collection]]

{{François Truffaut}}
{{French submission for Academy Awards}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stolen Kisses}}
[[Category:1968 films]]
[[Category:1968 comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:1968 romantic comedy films]]
[[Category:1968 romantic drama films]]
[[Category:1960s French films]]
[[Category:1960s French-language films]]
[[Category:1960s romantic comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:Antoine Doinel]]
[[Category:Color sequels of black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films directed by François Truffaut]]
[[Category:Films scored by Antoine Duhamel]]
[[Category:Films set in Paris]]
[[Category:Films shot in Paris]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by François Truffaut]]
[[Category:French romantic comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:French sequel films]]
[[Category:French-language romantic comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:Louis Delluc Prize winners]]