Love on the Run

Fraincois Truffaut concluded his memorable Antoine Doinel series with this this film. Unfortunately I broke an unwritten rule by watching these out of order, and I have yet to see two of them. It began with his masterpiece (The 400 Blows) and then I saw the third entry (Stolen Kisses), and now the fifth entry. Throughout the series we watch Doinel grow from a mere lad in the first film, to now a 30-something who just got divorced. Doinel is always played by the excellent French actor, Jean-Pierre Leaud who kind of reminds me of Christian Bale. He has the advantage of never seeming to age and being an incredibly likeable, complex, and charismatic presence. It's too bad, though, that this is the least of the three in the series that I've seen. Even Truffaut was disappointed with it. However, it's thoroughly entertaining. Remember that scene in Jerry Maguire at Tom Cruise's bachelor party they are playing that video of all his ex-girlfriends telling about him and his insecurities? Well, that kind of what this entire film is -- a collection of characters from the previous films learning about the man (there are repeated "flashbacks" to scenes from the earlier films). It's memorable in that it has Truffaut's warm-heartedness and for the fact that viewers of the series have watched Doinel grow up. For those of you who have seen The 400 Blows, you know that Doinel is probably one of cinema's most memorable characters because he is so personal and real to Truffaut, and it continues. But ultimately, this one doesn't do that character and its director justice. Probably the best example of a series in which a character grows from childhood to adulthood is Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy. See The World of Apu, that does what this film could have done.