Stolen Kisses · reception & legacy
1968 · François Truffaut
How Stolen Kisses has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
A hit in France and an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film on release, though some 1968 critics side-eyed Truffaut for making a featherlight romance in the year of the barricades; today that lightness is the point, and it's widely embraced as the most charming entry in the Doinel cycle.
What's debated
The perennial debate: is this 'minor' Truffaut coasting on charm, or his most graceful film — deceptively slight on the surface, quietly melancholy underneath?
Its footprint
The mirror scene of Antoine chanting names at his own reflection is one of the New Wave's most gif'd and referenced moments, and Charles Trenet's 'Que reste-t-il de nos amours?' — the song that gives the film its title — is now permanently welded to it.
Where it stands
A cornerstone of the Antoine Doinel cycle and a Letterboxd favourite for the French New Wave's romantic, soft-hearted side — the Truffaut people recommend when they want to make someone fall in love with him.