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Stolen Kisses

Stolen Kisses

List Price: $19.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ~Lovely and Delightful~
Review: "Stolen Kisses" is also one of those films that I can watch over and over again without getting bored. This film is charming and funny. Jean-Pierre Leaud's exaggerated expressions (his "declaration of love" for Madame Tabat scene and the "Chiquitita banana" scene) certainly contribute to the film's charm. I adore the characters Antoine and Christine very much. The film is very well made; like all Truffaut's films, the music, sceneries, casts, lighting, landscapes, angles etc all fit in like a perfect jigsaw puzzle. I feel that the best scene is the beginning of the movie where Truffaut shoot scenes of moving cars on the street and then slowly moves on to shoot the entrance of a cinema. It is also then the music fills in the background. I agree with one of the reviewers that this film makes good use of Charles Trenet's song "Que Reste-T-Il De Nos Amours". Simply delightful!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ~Lovely and Delightful~
Review: "Stolen Kisses" is also one of those films that I can watch over and over again without getting bored. This film is charming and funny. Jean-Pierre Leaud's exaggerated expressions (his "declaration of love" for Madame Tabat scene and the "Chiquitita banana" scene) certainly contribute to the film's charm. I adore the characters Antoine and Christine very much. The film is very well made; like all Truffaut's films, the music, sceneries, casts, lighting, landscapes, angles etc all fit in like a perfect jigsaw puzzle. I feel that the best scene is the beginning of the movie where Truffaut shoot scenes of moving cars on the street and then slowly moves on to shoot the entrance of a cinema. It is also then the music fills in the background. I agree with one of the reviewers that this film makes good use of Charles Trenet's song "Que Reste-T-Il De Nos Amours". Simply delightful!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Rent it first
Review: After reading the two reviews above, I bought Stolen Kisses sight-unseen. I wish I'd rented it first. It may have been a pivotal film 20 years ago in France, but it hardly holds up. There's very little structure--the story meanders aimlessly from place to place. And I don't know what the reviewers above found funny or sexy--there's not a lot of humor (certainly not by today's comic standards), and there's no sex by any standards. Rent it first, then decide if you need to own it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: ANTOINE STRIKES BACK
Review: Antoine Doinel, French director François Truffaut's cinematographic double, returns in STOLEN KISSES after an eight years break (if one excepts the short movie ANTOINE ET COLETTE ). Back to a beloved character for Truffaut, back to the civilian life for Antoine - Jean-Pierre Léaud - Doinel who tries to survive in the Paris of 1967.

STOLEN KISSES is not a realistic movie, it's rather a mixture of light comedy and psychologic melodrama. I could say that Antoine Doinel is the big brother of the characters described 30 years later by Wes Anderson in BOTTLE ROCKET or RUSHMORE.

STOLEN KISSES is also a movie about how Truffaut saw the relations between men and women. According to this movie, they are more than complex and this theme, from this moment on, will be one of the constants of François Truffaut's next movies of the 70's and the 80's.

A dozen Truffaut trailers as bonus features, filmographies and english subtitles. Average sound but below-average images with faded colours.

A DVD for the Doinel fans.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: ANTOINE STRIKES BACK
Review: Antoine Doinel, French director François Truffaut's cinematographic double, returns in STOLEN KISSES after an eight years break (if one excepts the short movie ANTOINE ET COLETTE ). Back to a beloved character for Truffaut, back to the civilian life for Antoine - Jean-Pierre Léaud - Doinel who tries to survive in the Paris of 1967.

STOLEN KISSES is not a realistic movie, it's rather a mixture of light comedy and psychologic melodrama. I could say that Antoine Doinel is the big brother of the characters described 30 years later by Wes Anderson in BOTTLE ROCKET or RUSHMORE.

STOLEN KISSES is also a movie about how Truffaut saw the relations between men and women. According to this movie, they are more than complex and this theme, from this moment on, will be one of the constants of François Truffaut's next movies of the 70's and the 80's.

A dozen Truffaut trailers as bonus features, filmographies and english subtitles. Average sound but below-average images with faded colours.

A DVD for the Doinel fans.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Excellent Film; Poor DVD Edition
Review: I have to respectfully disagree with the first reviewer. While "Stolen Kisses" might not be as powerful as the "The 400 Blows," it stands as one of the best treatments on film of the adolescent exploration of love andsexuality. However, I will warn readers who are already fans of this film that this DVD version is nothing exceptional. Its main advantage is that, until recently, Stolen Kisses has been out of print and, in many cases, available only in an English-dubbed version. Make no mistake, Stolen Kisses is an excellent film and a worthy successor to The 400 Blows; however, there is little to distinguish this DVD version from its VHS counterpart. The colors are dull, the image quality is below average, the scene access offers a mere six markers, and there are no real "special" features. As I have come to expect from Fox Lorber's collection of Godard and Truffaut films, quality is sporadic. If only Fox Lorber was more interested in the quality of its issues than in the quantity of the output. I think DVD collectors would be willing to wait and pay a few extra dollars for truly distinguished issues like "Jules and Jim" or "My Life to Live".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: one of the greatest films ever
Review: i wouldn't say that about too many films but this one has it all - romance, humor, sex, etc, etc. It's truffaut's masterpiece so it's a masterpiece by one of the greatest. wow! buy it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truffaut's Best?
Review: One could argue most effectively that STOLEN KISSES is Truffaut's best film, he's working at the height of his powers here. Of the Truffaunt canon, only DAY FOR NIGHT can be seen as better. Truffaut's masterful direction of a misguided, loveable ne'er-do-well is uncanny and refreshing to this day. Truffaut's treatment of unrecoited love dwarves most modern attempts at the subject by its sheer believability. Unlike most films on the subject where the tired, cliched tortured hero can barely cope, Doniel (troubled nonetheless) handles it in a honest and realistic manner.

The film, like life, has many touching moments, questing moments and frustrating moments; it oscilates from drama to comedy so easily, so much like life itself - something rare in American film in particular.

Truffaut masterly uses the camera to capture the right image at the right moment, the right time for the right effect. It's hard to believe his star has diminished as much as it has in the near two decades since his untimely death.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truffaut's Best?
Review: One could argue most effectively that STOLEN KISSES is Truffaut's best film, he's working at the height of his powers here. Of the Truffaunt canon, only DAY FOR NIGHT can be seen as better. Truffaut's masterful direction of a misguided, loveable ne'er-do-well is uncanny and refreshing to this day. Truffaut's treatment of unrecoited love dwarves most modern attempts at the subject by its sheer believability. Unlike most films on the subject where the tired, cliched tortured hero can barely cope, Doniel (troubled nonetheless) handles it in a honest and realistic manner.

The film, like life, has many touching moments, questing moments and frustrating moments; it oscilates from drama to comedy so easily, so much like life itself - something rare in American film in particular.

Truffaut masterly uses the camera to capture the right image at the right moment, the right time for the right effect. It's hard to believe his star has diminished as much as it has in the near two decades since his untimely death.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Stolen Kisses, Wasted Time
Review: The 400 Blows is deservedly one of the best movies of all time. Stolen Kisses, a continuation of the Antoine Doinel character, could possibly qualify as one of the worst (okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but it is bad). Truffaut obviously decided to go for a farcical Antoine, which proved to be a big, big mistake. Antoine is no longer that edgy, rebellious character struggling with the constraints imposed by authority. Remember how he reacted when he got slapped in the face? Very little reaction, which was perfect and believable. In Kisses, you have an Antoine who is more fawning than stoic, more mimicking than reserved. The result is this viewer's disappointment. In addition, the plot is haphazard, breezy, and meaningless. The ending is forgetful, in complete contrast to that of The 400 Blows. Do yourself a favor: instead of wasting your time watching this, watch The 400 Blows again.


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