{ "id": "epww1sykcb", "slug": "love-on-the-run", "title": "Love on the Run", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1970s", "label": "Comedies of the 1970s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1970s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1970s.yr-1977-1979", "label": "Released 1977 to 1979", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1970s.yr-1977-1979" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1970s", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Comedies of the 1970s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1970s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1970s", "label": "Comedies of the 1970s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1970s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Love on the Run (L'Amour en fuite) is François Truffaut's 1979 French comedy-drama, the fifth and final Antoine Doinel film starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, following Doinel's divorce, new romance, and flashbacks to earlier films.", "snippet": "Love on the Run (L'Amour en fuite) is François Truffaut's 1979 French comedy-drama, the fifth and final Antoine Doinel film starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, following Doinel's divorce, new romance, and flashbacks to earlier films.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1970s.yr-1977-1979", "markdown": "# Love on the Run\n\n**Love on the Run** (French: *L'Amour en fuite*) is a 1979 French comedy-drama directed by [François Truffaut](https://www.edgepedia.org/francois-truffaut) and the fifth and final film in his Antoine Doinel cycle, following the character played by [Jean-Pierre Léaud](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-pierre-leaud) from childhood through divorce[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/734). Now in his thirties, Antoine concludes his marriage, pursues a new romance with a record-store salesgirl, and re-encounters past loves while confronting his own history[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/734).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | *L'Amour en fuite*; directed by François Truffaut, France, 1979[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/734) |\n| Place in the cycle | Fifth and final Antoine Doinel film, after *The 400 Blows* (1959), *Love at Twenty* (1962), *Stolen Kisses* (1968), and *Bed and Board* (1970)[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979) |\n| Release | France January 24, 1979; United States April 6, 1979[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078771/releaseinfo/) |\n| Runtime and format | 95 minutes, color, 1.66:1, French (other sources list 93 or 94 minutes)[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/734) • [4](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/love-on-the-run-1979) |\n| Key creatives | Screenplay by Truffaut, Marie-France Pisier, Jean Aurel, and Suzanne Schiffman; cinematography by Nestor Almendros; music by Georges Delerue[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/734) |\n| Principal cast | Jean-Pierre Léaud (Antoine Doinel), Marie-France Pisier (Colette), Claude Jade (Christine), Dani (Liliane), Dorothée (Sabine)[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/734) |\n| Reception | Rotten Tomatoes 62% from 13 reviews; IMDb 7.0 from about 8,000 ratings[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1012839-love_on_the_run) • [4](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/love-on-the-run-1979) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and place in the Doinel cycle\n\nTruffaut introduced Antoine Doinel in *The 400 Blows* (1959) and continued his story through the short film *Antoine and Colette* (1962, part of *Love at Twenty*), *Stolen Kisses* (1968), and *[Bed and Board](https://www.edgepedia.org/bed-and-board)* (1970), tracing the character from loveless childhood through first love, marriage, and infidelity[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979). *Love on the Run* closes the cycle: Antoine, now in his thirties, is amicably ending his marriage to Christine (Claude Jade), a violinist, while enjoying moderate success as a novelist and clinging to his romantic fantasies[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/734).\n\nThe plot turns on chance encounters. Antoine is involved with Sabine (Dorothée), a record-store salesgirl whom he pursues in the belief that without love one is nothing[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/734). He meets his first love, Colette (Marie-France Pisier), now a lawyer, when she buys a copy of his newly published autobiography, which recounts his past loves[4](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/love-on-the-run-1979). He also crosses paths with Liliane (Dani), an old flame, and with Monsieur Lucien (Julien Bertheau), the lover of his late mother, a figure who existed only peripherally in *The 400 Blows*; a lunch with Lucien lets Antoine posthumously reconcile with the mother he had resented[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979).\n\nThe women in Antoine's life read his writing accurately. Colette, brandishing his second book, *Les Salades de l'Amour*, tells him he will not be a real writer until he writes something that is all fiction; Christine says that writing to settle old scores is not art; Liliane declares that he wants everyone to make up for his unhappy childhood[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979). A subplot deals with the death of a child, an unusually dark element for so light a comedy[6](https://academic.oup.com/book/41541/chapter-abstract/352992299).\n\n## Production\n\nTruffaut had doubts about the project from the start. On May 10, 1978 he wrote to the film scholar Annette Insdorf that he was \"not terribly happy with the script,\" which he was to begin shooting in two weeks, and that integrating \"real\" flashbacks from the four previous Doinel films had produced a wishy-washy script that would be difficult to improve[7](https://cinematicscribblings.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/the-adventures-of-antoine-doinel-love-on-the-run-1979/). Pisier, who co-wrote the screenplay, later said that Truffaut hated the project very early on[7](https://cinematicscribblings.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/the-adventures-of-antoine-doinel-love-on-the-run-1979/).\n\nFilming began at the end of May 1978 and finished by early July; the Les Films du Carrosse production took only 28 days to shoot[7](https://cinematicscribblings.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/the-adventures-of-antoine-doinel-love-on-the-run-1979/) • [8](https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/janus_promo_packages/764-/Press%20Notes_The%20Adventures%20of%20Antoine%20Doinel_web_original.pdf). Because of the complicated nonlinear structure, Truffaut and editor Martine Barraqué then spent significant time in the editing room, and the film was not released until January 1979[7](https://cinematicscribblings.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/the-adventures-of-antoine-doinel-love-on-the-run-1979/) • [8](https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/janus_promo_packages/764-/Press%20Notes_The%20Adventures%20of%20Antoine%20Doinel_web_original.pdf).\n\nCommercially, the film arrived at a useful moment. Truffaut's previous film, *The Green Room* (1978), had been a flop, and he counted on Doinel's reappearance to pre-sell the new one. It was a hit, buttressing his company's shaky finances[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979).\n\n## The flashback structure\n\n*Love on the Run* is in large part a summing-up film. It draws extensively on clips from the previous four Doinel films, sometimes recontextualizing them and including material not in the originals, and it also incorporates footage from Truffaut's non-Doinel films *[Two English Girls](https://www.edgepedia.org/two-english-girls)* (1971), *A Gorgeous Girl Like Me* (1972), and *Day for Night* (1973)[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979) • [8](https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/janus_promo_packages/764-/Press%20Notes_The%20Adventures%20of%20Antoine%20Doinel_web_original.pdf). One flashback of Liliane and Antoine arguing is actually a clip from *Day for Night*, in which the two actors had also played lovers, although that film is not part of the Doinel saga[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078771/).\n\nTruffaut also sliced and diced time to give different versions of the same action, such as Antoine finding a ripped-up photo of a girl in a phone booth and putting alternative spins on it[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979). He acknowledged that he had not entirely solved the problem, as he put it, of \"building a film with pieces that already exist\"[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979).\n\n## Reception and assessment\n\nCritically, the film fared worse than commercially. It mostly received what the [Turner Classic Movies](https://www.edgepedia.org/turner-classic-movies) essayist Jay Carr calls a critical shellacking, less for being self-referential than because Truffaut, in the eyes of many, did not create enough of a film[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979). The New Wave Film Encyclopedia compares it to a television \"clip show,\" with flashbacks substituting for plot substance, while noting that the public loved it[10](https://www.newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-encyclopedia/love-on-the-run.shtml). On aggregate measures it sits mid-range: 62% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer and 7.0 on IMDb[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1012839-love_on_the_run) • [4](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/love-on-the-run-1979).\n\nTruffaut himself tended in later years to dismiss the film as a failure, precisely on the matter of form[11](https://www.adrianmartinfilmcritic.com/reviews/l/love_on_the_run.html). He also wrote that he felt bad about handing Léaud what he called a poison pill of a role[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979).\n\nThe film's standing is complicated by its music. [Georges Delerue](https://www.edgepedia.org/georges-delerue), Truffaut's longtime composer, won one of his three consecutive César Awards for Best Music for *Love on the Run*, between *[Get Out Your Handkerchiefs](https://www.edgepedia.org/get-out-your-handkerchiefs)* and *The Last Metro*[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/734). The title song was written and sung by the popular singer [Alain Souchon](https://www.edgepedia.org/alain-souchon), to whom Truffaut explained the many senses of \"flight\" he intended: time flying, love flying out the window, and the fact that however much one flees one's problems, they pursue[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979).\n\n## Aftermath and availability\n\nTruffaut was 46 when he filmed *Love on the Run* and made three more films before his death in 1984, so the film stands as his final word on his signature character[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979) • [12](https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/love-on-the-run-the-last-of-the-truffaut-leaud-21184538.php). For Léaud it marked the end of a great period that had begun with *The 400 Blows* in 1959 and lasted twenty years[12](https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/love-on-the-run-the-last-of-the-truffaut-leaud-21184538.php).\n\n[The Criterion Collection](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-criterion-collection) released the film on home video as Spine #188 and in *The Adventures of Antoine Doinel* collector's sets[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/734). In the United States it streams on the Criterion Channel and the France Channel on Amazon, with rental and purchase options on Amazon Video and the Apple TV Store; in the United Kingdom it has streamed on BFI Player[4](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/love-on-the-run-1979).\n\n## References\n\n1. [Love on the Run (1979), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/734)\n2. [Jay Carr, \"Love on the Run (1979),\" Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/462319/love-on-the-run-1979)\n3. [Love on the Run (1979) – Release info, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078771/releaseinfo/)\n4. [Love on the Run streaming: where to watch online, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/love-on-the-run-1979)\n5. [Love on the Run, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1012839-love_on_the_run)\n6. [Love on the Run (1979), in *Totally Truffaut*, Oxford Academic](https://academic.oup.com/book/41541/chapter-abstract/352992299)\n7. [The Adventures of Antoine Doinel: Love on the Run (1979), Cinematic Scribblings](https://cinematicscribblings.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/the-adventures-of-antoine-doinel-love-on-the-run-1979/)\n8. [Press Notes, The Adventures of Antoine Doinel, Janus Films/Criterion](https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/janus_promo_packages/764-/Press%20Notes_The%20Adventures%20of%20Antoine%20Doinel_web_original.pdf)\n9. [Love on the Run (1979), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078771/)\n10. [L'Amour en fuite (Love on the Run), New Wave Film Encyclopedia](https://www.newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-encyclopedia/love-on-the-run.shtml)\n11. [Love on the Run review, Adrian Martin Film Critic](https://www.adrianmartinfilmcritic.com/reviews/l/love_on_the_run.html)\n12. [Mick LaSalle, \"'Love on the Run,' the last of the Truffaut-Leaud Antoine Doinel series,\" San Francisco Chronicle](https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/love-on-the-run-the-last-of-the-truffaut-leaud-21184538.php)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1970s › Released 1977 to 1979*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/love-on-the-run", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/love-on-the-run.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Love on the Run\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/love-on-the-run. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Love on the Run](https://www.edgepedia.org/love-on-the-run)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/love-on-the-run](https://www.edgepedia.org/love-on-the-run). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Love on the Run\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/love-on-the-run. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Love on the Run is François Truffaut's 1979 French comedy-drama, the fifth and final Antoine Doinel film starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, following Doinel's divorce, new romance, and flashbacks to earlier films." }