Love on the Run (1979)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Fantastic!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) is having a love affair with the vinyl seller Colette Tazzi (Marie-France Pisier). After five years of a troubled marriage with separations, Antoine and Christine Doinel (Claude Jade) have a private audience with the judge (Marie Henriau) and conclude an amicable divorce process. His former sweetheart and presently lawyer Colette Tazzi (Marie-France Pisier) sees Antoine leaving the court and she goes to a bookstore to buy his autobiographical novel that was published a couple of years ago. When Antoine goes with Alphonse (Julien Dubois) to the train station for the travel vacation of his son, he sees Colette in another train and he jumps from the platform to the train and travels with her. They recall their adolescent love and disclose their sentimental relationships; but when Colette tells how she raises money for her self-support, Antoine is disappointed and seeks out Sabine."L'Amour en Fuite" is the conclusion of the sentimental saga of the character Antoine Doinel, the insecure alter ego of François Truffaut that began in "Les Quatre Cents Coups" and followed through "L'Amour à Vingt Ans", "Baisers Volés" and "Domicile Conjugal", inclusive with the use of scenes in the many flashbacks of these movies with his recollections and troubled love affairs. This character has an evolution from the needy fourteen years old boy rejected by his mother and his stepfather in the first movie. The lack of affection at home makes him a rebel, bad student, liar, reckless and a thief stealing objects and money at home in his adolescence. In the next movies, he grows-up, but with a fragile emotional structure and the viewer sees an unstable man incapable of having a steady relationship or commitment with the many beautiful women that he meets along his futile life. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Amor em Fuga" ("The Love on the Run")

Love on the Run (1979), the closing chapter in François Truffaut's celebrated series of films focusing on the character of Antoine Doinel; a near-iconic figure in French cinema brought vividly to life by the always great Jean-Pierre Léaud. Here, the actors injects the part with his usual nervous charm and cocky likability, though it is clear that character of Antoine is , still as uncertain about life, love and fidelity as ever before. On a Structural level, the film is built around Antoine's divorce from his wife Christine - with the reappearance of Claude Jade from Stolen Kisses (1968) and Bed and Board (1970) - inter-cut with flashbacks to early escapades from Antoine's presented in the style of a clip show.This particular stylistic device does set up a sense of familiarity for new viewers, however; with such a slight plot, the flashbacks end up becoming the most interesting part of the movie, with what little new footage there is so repetitive that it feels like you're watching the same scene over and over again. In fact, the film is so hastily put together that it looks like Truffaut is desperate to get the series finished and out of the way, so that he can finally move on with the more progressive work that he was attempting with films like The Green Room (1979) and The Last Metro (1980).Still, the film can sometimes be charming and the actors are all on fine form, but the whole thing seems lacking somewhat; with the use of repeated imagery and scenes cut and pasted from the previous films making this feel too much like a retread rather than a radical re-interpretation. For me, the film just seems empty, deflated and somehow lacking the allure, beauty and sophistication that was always synonymous with Truffaut's work or at least the films of his that I am familiar with. For me, Love on the Run was something of a slight, disappointing and unimaginative film that failed to inspire me in the way I had initially hoped.

"The final installment in the Antoine-series" it said on the video box. I wondered if it would be such a good idea to rent the last part first (the first wasn't there) and then I decided there was only one way to find out. L'amour en fuite promises to be one of the worst films ever when you begin watching it. It looks like boring talky French cinema, a loudmouthed movie with nothing to say. The movie isn't helped by the appearance of Dorothée, the French equivalent to Barney (both are pink and annoying). After five minutes her character goes her own way and we only meet her again after quite a while. By that time Dorothée remembered it might not be such a bad idea after all to act when you're in a movie. Those attempts make her character more bearable and save the movie from eternal doom.So let's all be grateful L'amour en fuite doesn't follow Sabine (Dorothée), but Antoine (played by Jean-Pierre Léaud). Though most people think of the bulky mass formerly known as Gérard Depardieu when they think of a French actor, I'd think of Léaud. Either he's in 500 movies, or I've just seen a lot of them. In L'amour en fuite we follow Antoine when he and his wife divorce, when his latest girlfriend can't stand him anymore, when he meets the lover of his dead mother and when he meets his first love again. Though all this might get the impression L'amour en fuite is a typically French talky movie about l'amour, it isn't, all because of the talent of director François Truffaut. Truffaut's efforts make this movie go from dreadful over bearable to interesting. Especially the scene where Antoine's ex-wife (Claude Jade) meets his first love (Marie-France Pisier) and they talk about our protagonist shows you how talented Truffaut was. The movie can stand on its own, so it doesn't matter if you haven't seen the previous Antoine episodes. L'amour en fuite is nice, but nothing more.

True, there are a bit too much flash back in the film (with some lengthy ones,too), but after the previous four Antoine Doinel films, this last installment brings so much sentiment and feeling that is quite unique and unmatched in any other films. Whether Antoine's life will change or not, nobody can tell. The important thing is, he has to face the reality this time. He's no longer young, plus he's a divorced father and struggling writer (what a combination!). Yet as all the people around him changed, Antoine still has the child-like energy and belief in love. That's what makes him so attractive as a protagonist in FIVE films. Truffaut really gave us film lovers a great gift. Too bad that he died in 1984, or we might have a 6th or 7th film on Antoine Doinel!