"Antoine Doinel. He's got four ladies ... Nine lives ... and Plenty of alibis!"
Now in his thirties, Antoine Doinel is a divorced proofreader in love with a record seller. Colette Tazzi, now a lawyer, buys his first published autobiography, leading them to a chance meeting.
Jean-Pierre Léaud
Antoine Doinel
Marie-France Pisier
Colette Tazzi
Claude Jade
Christine Doinel
Dani
Liliane
Dorothée
Sabine Barnerias
Daniel Mesguich
Xavier Barnerias
Julien Bertheau
Monsieur Lucien
Marie Henriau
La Juge du Divorce
Julien Dubois
Alphonse Doinel
Now in his thirties, Antoine Doinel is a divorced proofreader in love with a record seller. Colette Tazzi, now a lawyer, buys his first published autobiography, leading them to a chance meeting.
Godawful opening and closing credits song apart, this final entry into the Antoine Doinel Saga is an enjoyable experience. Fairly briskly paced during the first twenty minutes or so, the film later sinks into a series of unnecessarily lengthy flashbacks, filmed in various aspect ratios. Jean-Pierre Leaud is his usual charming self and the main reason to watch 'Love on the Run'. One only wishes Truffaut hadn't cannibalized his earlier works to beef up the film's running time.
By now, we know that "Antoine Doinel" (Jean-Pierre Léaud) is a bit of a scoundrel and the first few scenes here illustrate that to a T! The ink is barely dry on his divorce from "Christine" (Claude Jade), when he is leaving new gal "Sabine" (Dorothée) to meet up with their son "Alphonse". This behaviour rather epitomises the problem for "Sabine" who yearns for just a little more commitment from her flaky boyfriend. He, on the other hand, is continuing to juggle the plates to nobody's particular satisfaction and that's depicted in this entertainingly stitched together drama using a series of flashbacks and contemporaneous storylines that only become more complex when he runs into his original infatuation "Colette" (Marie-France Pisier) - and him without a train ticket, too! For "Antoine" it's all a maelstrom of emotions that surround and immerse him, frequently leaving him flailing, but who might make him happy? Whom might he actually make happy if he stops being selfish long enough? Could he ever be that selfless? There's a fine chemistry here between Léaud and both Pisier and Dorothée as the comedy veers perilously close to slapstick at times, but it does stay just the on right side as his character raises laughs of both empathy and shame as his escapades see his life unravel before us. Truffaut keeps it moving along quickly and there's some observational wit amidst a script that quite poignantly sums up a man I reckon it'd be better not to know - especially if you're a woman.
At Bertrand Morane's burial there are many of the women that the 40-year-old engineer loved. In flashback Bertrand's life and love affairs are told by himself while writing an autobiographical novel.
A young woman struggling to stay on top of everything in her life meets a married publisher and begins an affair with him.
Mathias Gold is a down-on-his-luck New Yorker who inherits a Parisian apartment from his estranged father. But when he arrives in France to sell the vast domicile, he's shocked to discover a live-in tenant who is not prepared to budge. His apartment is a viager—an ancient French real estate system with complex rules pertaining to its resale—and the feisty Englishwoman Mathilde Girard, who has lived in the apartment with her daughter Chloé for many years, can by contract collect monthly payments from Mathias until her death.
Fanny and Jean have everything of an ideal couple: fulfilled professionally, they live in a magnificent apartment in the beautiful districts of Paris, and seem to be in love as on the first day. But when Fanny crosses, by chance, former classmate Alain, she's immediately capsized. They see each other again very quickly and grow closer.
Two married couples find only trouble and heartache as their complicated lives unfold. After 40 years of marriage, Alfie leaves his wife to pursue what he thinks is happiness with a call girl. His wife, Helena, reeling from abandonment, decides to follow the advice of a psychic. Sally, the daughter of Alfie and Helena, is unhappy in her marriage and develops a crush on her boss, while her husband, Roy, falls for a woman engaged to be married.
Joan is no longer in love with Victor, but it pains her to feel she is being dishonest with him. Alice, her best friend, reassures her: She herself doesn’t feel passionate about her partner Eric and yet their relationship is smooth sailing. She has no idea he is having an affair with Rebecca, their mutual friend. When Joan finally decides to leave Victor and he disappears, the lives of the three friends and their relationships are turned upside down.
Shortly before her wedding, art gallery director Nora travels from Paris to Grenoble to visit her preteen son, Elias, who is spending time with her aging professor father, Louis, recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. During her stay, she reaches out to her former lover, Ismaël, a viola player and father figure to Elias who has been committed against his will to a mental hospital. Ismaël, however, has his own problems to sort out.
A French woman mourning over the death of her husband three years prior is courted by a Swedish co-worker.
Seven lonely lives in Paris: a middle-aged estate agent who believes a colleague is sending messages in video tapes she loans him; his co-worker whose Bible is close at hand in times of stress; her late-night charge, an angry, nasty bedridden old man; his son, a patient bartender; the bartender's best patron, an ex-soldier who's lost his moorings while his fiancée looks for a large flat for them; and, the estate agent's much younger sister, who answers personals and waits in cafés with a red flower pinned on her jacket. Will any connect? Can open hearts trump fears?
Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.