Besos robados

I watched this film knowing that it was the sequel to Truffaut's the 400 Blows, but I couldn't help doubting that the protagonists for the two movies were one and the same. I know Stolen Kisses takes place nine years after, but something wasn't right. Maybe it was that this film was more comedic, maybe the character was different, maybe the world was different. I don't know. It is like the Antoine of Bizarro World.

Standing by itself, Stolen Kisses is a terrific film about a mediocrity. Antoine can't hold a job, and he can't even hold a woman. He kisses his girlfriend as he would kiss a prostitute - awkward and rough. Upon meeting a private detective (modeled after Andre Bazin - Truffaut's mentor), Antoine gets a job spying on the workers of a shoe store owner who claims everyone hates him. There, he falls into lust with the bosses high-society wife.

At the end of the film, Antoine is forced to compromise and marry his old girlfriend for whom he may or may not feel any true love. The point is that she is there to support him and love him. He is the elevated statue of desire to her just as the shoe store owner's wife was to him.

All in all, this movie is exceedingly well done by the Great Truffaut, but I just couldn't get past the fact that Antoine was the same boy I last saw escaping from a juvenille hall and running to the ocean in a moment of personal victory from a society that didn't really want him. Something in this film did not match up with the previous one.