stolen kisses (1968)

after the relatively out of character piece fahrenheit 451 and the film that would later go on to inspire quentin tarantino's kill bill series the bride wore black, francois truffaut returned to the antoine doinel series in 1968 with stolen kisses.

we pick up with antoine freshy discharged (dishonorably) from the army, and on the lookout for his sweetheart (although not colette from the previous antoine and colette). through a series of events antoine ends up working for a private detective agency, fall for the boss's wife and finally end up working as a tv repairman. its all very scattershot but works incredibly well on screen.

i found the use of the private detective agency of particular interest, seeing as truffaut was so keen on the hollywood cinema that was largely dominated by such figures. it was a nice tribute i thought, and didnt seem to falter as parody too much, which is one of my complaints with his shoot the pianist. the use of tv repair man as an occupation seemed to me to be a sly nod to the television industry too, courtesy of the cinema world. as a result this film seemed to fit in with the whole ethos of the new wave much stronger than the earlier films in the series. the nod to laurel and hardy is blatent too, another example of the sort of thing i would expect of the nouvelle vague.

the film is perhaps the best shot work of truffaut's career, with the lingering camerawork an obvious inspiration to the aesthetics of modern american independent cinema and the like. the scene of the letter tubes is outstanding, genuinely one of the all time great scenes.