Stolen Kisses

Antoine Doinel is thrown out of the army, cycles through jobs and ends up working for a private detective agency. His work is following people; running his own life is still beyond him. This is the third film in the series, after The 400 Blows in 1959 and the short Antoine and Colette in 1962. Jean-Pierre Léaud returns as Antoine, and Claude Jade's Christine Darbon enters here and stays for the rest of the cycle. Truffaut put a political statement directly into the opening: the closed gates of the Cinémathèque Française, a protest against the removal of Henri Langlois, an affair that had mobilised the entire French film community. The production ran through the upheaval of 1968. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 97 percent, with critics praising how the film moves between slapstick and lyrical romance without losing its footing. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. Who it is for: anyone wanting an easy way into the French New Wave. This is the lightest and happiest entry in the cycle. Who it is not for: viewers who will notice that Antoine's behaviour toward women reads badly now. What the film offers as charm is, in several places, following and refusing to stop.