A warm, sly, and deeply human romantic comedy about stumbling into adulthood, with Truffaut balancing awkwardness, melancholy, and charm. It’s especially rewarding if you like character-driven French New Wave cinema, offbeat humor, and films that find tenderness in failure.
Stolen Kisses
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Comedy · Drama
Wed · 1h 30m
Director: François Truffaut
Starring: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claude Jade, Delphine Seyrig
Overview
The third in a series of films featuring François Truffaut's alter-ego, Antoine Doinel, the story resumes with Antoine being discharged from military service. His sweetheart Christine's father lands Antoine a job as a security guard, which he promptly loses. Stumbling into a position assisting a private detective, Antoine falls for his employers' seductive wife, Fabienne, and finds that he must choose between the older woman and Christine.
Director
François Truffaut
Cast
Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claude Jade, Delphine Seyrig
Curator Review
Verdict
A warm, sly, and deeply human romantic comedy about stumbling into adulthood, with Truffaut balancing awkwardness, melancholy, and charm. It’s especially rewarding if you like character-driven French New Wave cinema, offbeat humor, and films that find tenderness in failure.
Best for
fans of French New Wave cinema
viewers who like romantic comedies with emotional undercurrents
people drawn to awkward, self-sabotaging protagonists
fans of coming-of-age stories that continue into adulthood
viewers interested in playful, cinephile filmmaking
Skip if
you want a tightly plotted romance
you dislike episodic, meandering character studies
you prefer broad comedy over dry, rueful humor
you are not interested in sequel-like character continuity
you want high-stakes drama or conventional emotional payoff
Overview
Stolen Kisses is one of Truffaut’s most effortless blends of comedy and melancholy, turning Antoine Doinel’s incompetence into something oddly endearing. The film treats romantic confusion, job-hopping, and social embarrassment as part of the same larger education: learning how to live inside the adult world without ever quite mastering it.
Worth noting
What makes it sing is the tone. It’s light on its feet but never trivial, with a fondness for Antoine’s blunders that never becomes mockery. The film’s flirtations and reversals feel breezy, yet there’s a constant sense that desire, class, and self-image are all colliding just beneath the surface.
Bottom line
It also works beautifully as a showcase for Jean-Pierre Léaud, whose performance makes Antoine seem both ridiculous and deeply recognizable. The result is a romantic comedy with real bite and warmth, a film that feels casual while quietly accumulating emotional weight.
Top Letterboxd reviews
KYK (4★) · 1223 likes
jean-pierre leaud accidentally calling delphine seyrig “sir” and running out panicked 👌 35mm. Metrograph.
alexa (5★) · 1138 likes
I love how Antoine is just so bad at everything like finally some representation
nora (4.5★) · 1068 likes
that scene where jean-pierre léaud stares at himself in the mirror shouting "ANTOINE DOINEL! ANTOINE DOINEL! ANTOINE DOINEL!" until he emotionally crumbles is, how you say, moi
Rafael Coêlho (3.5★) · 686 likes
i relate to doinel because he’s just a Very Sad Sad Bitch who has no idea of what’s going on
eely (5★) · 625 likes
l'adjudant chef: you are being dishonorably discharged from the army for literally being the worst soldier france has ever seen antoine doinel: 😜🤪
A refined study of desire and hesitation, with the same fascination for emotional self-contradiction.
Themes
coming of age, romantic indecision, adulthood and responsibility, self-sabotage, identity and performance, desire and infatuation, work and social class, urban alienation
Topics
French New Wave, romantic comedy, coming-of-age, awkward humor, melancholy, character study, 1960s cinema, urban life, lighthearted drama