Stolen Kisses (1968, dir. Francois Truffaut) ****/****

"Stolen Kisses" is the third official instalment in the exploits of Francois Truffaut's iconic character Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Leaud).  The interesting thing about the character and actor is that all three are interchangeable:  Truffaut is Doinel.  Leaud is Doinel.  Truffaut is Leaud.  The film is really an autobiographical musing on Truffaut's own early adulthood and Leaud, in embodying the character makes him his own as well.
   At the beginning of this feature, Antoine is discharged from the army for insubordination.  He quickly visits a bordello followed by his girlfriend from before enlisting, Christine Darbon (Claude Jade).  Her father offers him a job as a night clerk in a hotel.  He quickly loses this job over an issue with a private investigator who in turn persuades Antoine to join his organization.  Soon Antoine is in full swing as a private investigator himself.  He gets an assignment in a shoe store to find out why the boss is so hated by his employees.  On the job he falls hard for the boss's wife.  Eventually he loses his job at the P.I. Agency and soon finds himself working as a TV repairman.  It is in this position that he is reunited with Christine.
    This may sound like a simple, mundane story but Truffaut suffuses it with so much wit and charm and Leaud is so charismatic in the lead that the viewer will be swept away.  The "Stolen Kisses" of the title comes from a song on the film's soundtrack but it also is a perfect statement of Antoine's way of dealing with his various longings and exploits.  The screenplay is beautifully executed.  The scenes on the streets of Paris are awesome.  I loved the way that Antoine runs through the busy streets of Paris, narrowly avoiding being hit by cars in a carefree manner that beautifully expresses and continues the character that was initially established in Truffaut's first feature "The Four Hundred Blows".
   Antoine is seemingly apolitical but his adventures are a perfect allegory for the experiences of young adults in the late 60's in France and around the world.  Doinel is as complex and eccentric as any character to come out ever and both Leaud and Truffaut do an expert job of bringing the character to exhilarating, comic, and endearing fruition.