Liebe auf der Flucht

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")

The problem with sequels is that they usually don't have the same impact as the original (can anybody tell me that ANY of the "Indiana Jones" movies after "Raiders" was worth a darn?). Truffaut took a big chance with the Antoine Doniel character and made 5 movies with Leaud playing him in all of them....instead of losing my interest, I found each installment compelling and wonderful in their own little ways...."Love On The Run", the final installment of the series, shows us a much older Antoine who's still confused as to what exactly love is....unlike "The 400 Blows", the impact can't be likened to a punch to the jaw, but is more subtle and infectious. Truffaut's ode to love, to Jean-Pierre Leaud, and to Antoine Doniel, does this cinematic sleight of hand with flashbacks to the other 4 movies, with re-introducing a lot of the characters (his ex-wife, Collette, and even the man he caught kissing his mom in the first movie), and paints a more complete picture of a man who finally stops running (no pun intended) from his wretched childhood, and who finally learns that love requires trust and sacrifice....a magnificent last chapter to one of cinema's most beloved characters. You might not realize it while watching it, but you'll still be seeing scenes from the movie running in your head for days afterwards.....

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!

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.

This is the final film about the character, Antoine Doinel. He first appeared in The 400 Blows and you see him in 5 Truffaut films over the years. You see him grow from an emotionally neglected little punk in the first film and by the fifth, he is a Woody Allen-like little guy who has had a long series of troubled relationships that he ultimately sabotaged due to his discomfort with emotional commitment. He has a great time falling in love but soon strays or otherwise causes the relationships to sour.

The plot and emotional growth of the character is excellent. So why only a 7 for this film? Well, much of the film is simply cut and pasted from the previous Antoine Doinel films. This gave it a certain cheap look. Plus, what I really found inexplicable was that Truffaut used clips from Jean-Pierre Léaud films that were NOT about Doinel but pretended the clips were about him. In addition, clips from some Doinel films were shown but the entire scene is re-dubbed or explained in a way in which the scene did NOT appear in the original film. A good example is a clip from Stolen Kisses. The narrator says he (Doinel) was unlucky in love and followed attractive women because he'd become infatuated with them. However, this scene was actually of Doinel following a lady because he was a private detective in this film--this was NOT someone he was infatuated with. Those who remember this movie well will be shocked at how easy it is to spot this obvious change. Finally, for some odd reason, one of the clips from Stolen Kisses is shown in black and white, while all the others from the movie are in color. It just didn't make sense why this occurred.

These inconsistencies are not great film-making. Decent film-making, maybe. For a better Truffaut film, try watching The Bride Wore Black (my personal favorite) or Wild Child or The Story of Adele H.