Film

Stolen Kisses

Third outing for François Truffaut's shambling alter ego Antoine Doinel, freshly discharged from the army and unable to hold a job, a woman, or an opinion for long. It's loose, funny, and quietly melancholy — Paris as a backdrop for someone fumbling toward adulthood without much urgency. Good for anyone who wants romantic comedy that shrugs instead of resolves, and doesn't mind a hero who barely deserves his own ending.

TMDb rating7.3

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The 400 Blows1959

Meet Antoine as a lonely, resourceful runaway kid before you watch him fumble as an adult — Truffaut's debut is one of cinema's great coming-of-age films, and it makes everything after it land harder.

But Bleaker and rawer than Stolen Kisses' comic shrug, with almost none of the jokes to cushion the sadness.

The 400 Blows poster

Bed and Board1970no page yet

The next Doinel film carries Antoine's chaos straight into marriage and fatherhood, with the same gift for turning small domestic disasters into gentle comedy.

But Essentially repeats the formula — if his dithering wore thin here, he hasn't grown up much by this one either.

Jules and Jim1962

Truffaut's other great romantic triangle, played not for wry comedy but sweeping tragedy — see how differently he handles the same obsession with indecision and desire.

But Much more devastating and epic in scope; you'll miss Stolen Kisses' light touch and forgiving sense of humour.

Jules and Jim poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

L'Atalante1934no page yet

Truffaut named this his formative influence; both films drift with real affection toward young people who can't steer their own lives, filmed with the same patient tenderness.

Jean Vigo's poetic tale of a young bargeman and his new bride is one of the films Truffaut idolised — tender, strange, and delighted by ordinary people behaving foolishly for love.

But Silent-era pacing and dreamlike, wandering scenes can feel slow if you're expecting dialogue-driven comedy.

More like this (8)

Breathless1960

The other pillar of the French New Wave — jumpy, cool, in love with crime and cinema itself, made by Truffaut's closest rival and collaborator.

But Colder and more detached than anything Truffaut makes; the tenderness he keeps close is largely absent here.

Breathless poster

Annie Hall1977

Woody Allen's own study in romantic indecision and neurotic drift, funny and heartbroken in the same breath, clearly descended from this kind of New Wave charm.

But Faster, more jokes-per-minute, more self-aware — less patient with quiet, unresolved melancholy.

Annie Hall poster

Amélie2001

If it's Parisian whimsy and aimless wandering you're after, this delivers it in fuller colour, with the same fondness for oddball side characters and small-scale wonder.

But Sweeter and far more stylised — Truffaut's Paris is scruffier, less twinkly, and less interested in charm for its own sake.

Amélie poster

Frances Ha2013

Baumbach and Gerwig's black-and-white ode to aimless twenty-something drift, funny and touching about someone who can't quite land anywhere in adult life.

But Contemporary, American, and more manic — Frances sprints where Antoine just shrugs and wanders off.

Frances Ha poster

Manhattan1979

Another black-and-white love letter to a city full of tangled affairs and men who can't decide what they want, shot with the same tender attention to streets and mood.

But Carries darker undercurrents about age and power that Truffaut's film treats far more lightly.

Manhattan poster

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg1964

French, romantic, and bittersweet — proof that even sung-through melodrama can carry the same ache about love interrupted by life's ordinary demands.

But It's a full musical, wall-to-wall singing throughout — a big ask if you came for naturalistic dialogue and comic timing.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg poster

Master of None2015

Same essential engine — a charming young man too unfocused for his own good, stumbling between jobs and women without ever quite growing up — just rebuilt as an American streaming comedy.

Dev's aimless drift through dating and half-baked career moves in New York is Doinel reborn as a streaming-comedy hero — warm, funny, unhurried, and none too sure of himself.

But Half-hour serialised sitcom pacing feels nothing like a 90-minute film, and it leans toward observational wit over melancholy.

Master of None poster

Punch-Drunk Love2002

Both trace a socially clumsy young man drifting through jobs and desire toward a woman he hasn't earned yet, but Anderson swaps the New Wave shrug for anxious, operatic overload.

Adam Sandler, unexpectedly, plays a jittery, lovesick misfit stumbling sideways into a strange romance — the same hapless-guy-can't-get-it-together machinery, cranked into anxious, colour-saturated overdrive.

But Far stranger and more heightened than Truffaut's wry realism; Sandler's anxiety plays as near-surreal rather than charming.

Punch-Drunk Love poster

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The 400 Blows