It is incredible how well this film has held up over the years, and how it continues to fill you with all the spirit of hope and exultation that was part of l'epoque. This is not an overtly political film, though there are passing references to and images of the contemporary demonstrations which would shake France to its core in May of '68. Nonetheless, it captures spectacularly well the revolutionary feel of the times and makes perfectly understandable why Truffaut and Godard would call for the cancellation of the Cannes Festival of 1968. Nothing could go on has it had in the past after May '68, and "Stolen Kisses" itself was a statement of that refusal. The film is perhaps the best political film of the upheaval of that period for at least two reasons: 1) the attitude towards work: Antoine Doinel passes from job to job without a second thought, not worrying himself about a "career," and with a playful attitude that seemed inspired by Guy Debord's slogan of "ne travaillez jamais" ("never work"); 2) the attitude towards life in general: the film reflects that sensibility of the '68 movement that "everything is possible", that life can be lived as one adventure after another (as opposed to the dreary workaday life proffered by the bourgeoisie), that the craziest things can happen to you and that you should be open to taking them into your life (e.g., Christine falling in love with Antoine and vice versa). The lightness of the film is its greatest quality, for it suggests that all those "heavy" structures, physical, psychological, political and societal, can be overcome ("sous les pavés, la plage"/"beneath the pavement lies the beach") and life can be recovered.
Review of Stolen Kisses
