Sadly Over-hyped

Beautiful, moving film.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There are reasons why Truffaut is in the pantheon of greats. He creates for us simple human beings behaving simply, in everyday settings -- in that most cumbersome of artificial processes: a movie. Truffaut's people f' up, they un-f' up, etc. You laugh a lot, maybe cry a little, maybe get smarter. Looks easy, right? Late 1960s Paris stars in the film, along with Jean-Pierre Léaud (LAY-oh) and Delphine Seyrig, among a couple of dozen other superb actors and comedians.The legendary Truffaut-Léaud co-creation of the character Antoine Doinel continues here from previous films. Doinel is the quintessential impulsive screw-up, with an open heart, and goofy but undeniable sex appeal. Doinel is like Chaplin's little tramp if Chaplin's little tramp had some decent clothes, a sh*t job, and a lot of sex.Delphine Seyrig as Mme Tabard here is the luminous, unattainable goddess-next-door, eternally wise and humble. A more stunning film creature scarcely exists. Her scenes with Léaud are great events in all of cinema.The DVD I viewed contained much fascinating stuff in the extras: documentary material about the tumultuous times during the 1968 film shoot of 'Stolen Kisses' -- student riots, and Truffaut's principal involvement in the mass protest of government interference in the Cinémathèque Française, and subsequent shut-down of the Cannes Film Festival by him, Goddard, and other international film artists. Excellent history lesson.

This film is set against the backdrop of the student revolt of 1968. We know it's going on because images of the protests flicker on the television sets seen by Doinel (and by us) during the course of the movie. One would think that this character would engage in these earth-shaking events - after all, Doinnel is in his early 20s, the age of the protesters - but Truffaut chooses to have Doinnel be indifferent, detached, incurious. These epic events don't engage Doinnel at all. For me, Truffaut's insistence on our noticing Doinnel's detachment is Truffaut's comment on the limits of the student protests -- not unlike Marx's distinction between the way the proletariat and the lumpen-proletariat see their places in society.

SPOILERS INCLUDED: The morning-after breakfast scene is so endearingly simple as Truffaut manages to convey all of Antoine & Christine's affection sans pushy music, cliché, or even dialogue- just the two of them sitting at a table, scribbling their declarations of romance to one another on a piece of napkin over breakfast. We don't even need to know what they're writing down. We, the audience are already captivated and satisfied to just share in their intimate moment celebrating life's little joys. And as we watch the scene with the flighty Antoine staring at his own image in the mirror, repeating the names of his objects of desires with utterly convicted indecision, the question of who should he pursue becomes a matter of life and death. Fabienne Tabard. Christine Darbon. We wait in suspense. And when he begins to repeat his own name with the same earnestness, we realize that perhaps this love is not fleeting- could how he chooses love determine the very essence who he is? Truffaut made a slight, refreshing break from the melancholy of the first two Antoine Doinel series. This third installment has some of the most charming cinematic exclamations of love and that twenty-something search for the "joie de vivre."

For the role of Christine Darbon, Truffaut cast a nineteen-year-old actress, Claude Jade, who had impressed him in the stage play Enrico IV. Truffaut had been "completely taken by her beauty, her manners, her kindness, and her joie de vivre." Her polite upbringing and charismatic girl-next-door quality, as far as Truffaut was concerned, made Claude Jade perfect for the role of the pure-hearted Christine who would eventually win Antoine's heart. As Christine, Claude Jade is as cute as a button and her scenes are often the most charming ones in the film. Her introductory scene, stepping out of the Parisian night appearing like an angel to wave shyly at Antoine through a glass wall, is a delight. Later, Christine attempts to guess Antoine's latest job, amusingly tossing out way-off-the-mark guesses like cab driver or water taster. It is a ticklish scene but also hints that Christine, as of yet, doesn't think so highly of Antoine's employable skills. By the film's end, Antoine has become a TV repairman. He has been holding a grudge against Christine, so she wins him back in a fetching manner. She calls his company for service even as she is removing a component from her TV. The company sends Antoine, who is then forced to stay for hours trying to fix an irreparable TV.The best romantic scene in the film, however, is a quaint breakfast scene one morning in Christine's kitchen. Christine is busy teaching Antoine how to butter toast. Antoine, for his part, wishes to pose a question to her. Too embarrassed to express himself in words, he writes his question on a notepad instead and hands it to her. She immediately writes her reply and hands it back to him. They continue in this manner for a few more exchanges before Antoine withdraws a scissor from a nearby drawer and hangs it on Christine's ring finger. It is a touching and intimate moment between the two young lovers and communicates, without intrusive words, their affection for one another.