The Story of Adele H. (1975)

Drowning in an ocean of unrequited love.

Adèle H, the daughter of French writer Victor Hugo, wrote in her journals that she would walk across the ocean to be with the lover who rejected her. François Truffaut's Story of Adele H chronicles that journey.

One of the founders of the French New Wave film genre, Truffaut is best known for The 400 Blows, Jules and Jim and the Adventures of Antoine Doinel (The 400 Blows / Antoine & Collette / Stolen Kisses / Bed & Board / Love on the Run). In 1975, he gained notoriety with The Story of Adele H (L'Histoire d'Adèle H.), starring Isabelle Adjani (Camille Claudel, Possession) in the title role. Set in the 1860s and anchored in the actual diaries and letters of Adèle Hugo, the emotionally powerful film chronicles her obsessive, unrequited love for a womanizing British naval officer, Lieutenant Pinson (Bruce Robinson), a doomed love which ultimately leads to her into madness. When it comes to love for Pinson, Adèle is the female counterpart of Don Quixote. The film follows Adèle as she trails Pinson through the streets of Halifax, through the woods, and even as she spies on him in the arms of his sexual conquests. At night Adèle dreams she is drowning. Adjani's performance carries the beautifully-shot film, a performance which earned her an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress. (She should have won, in my opinion.) Truffaut makes a cameo appearance in the film as the soldier Adèle mistakes for Pinson. This is one of Truffaut's best films, shot in somber tones of black, blue, and brown, appropriate for a love story devoid of any happiness. Highly recommended.

G. Merritt March 5, 2008

Smokin' hot!

Isabel Adjani may be playing a character with a loose screw. But I am telling you, the babe is smokin' hot! January 17, 2008

Tragic, True Story Bogged Down by Repetitiveness

This film tells the true tale of one of Victor Hugo's daughters who, obsessed in her love for a man who could seemingly care less about her, follows him to Canada and then to the Caribbean. She is a desperately unhappy and neurotic woman. If she were alive today she'd be on all sorts of mood altering drugs and receiving all sorts of therapy.

Her story is painful to watch as a result--it's not easy to watch someone spiral into madness. As a film, it's also somewhat difficult to watch because not much progress gets made. She starts out disturbed, she ends up disturbed, and she's disturbed all throughout the middle. The same point keeps getting made over and over again.

Of interest to those who love literature and like to know about great authors and their families, and to those who like period pieces and like to watch how different (and more difficult in many ways) life was back then. The acting is excellent overall, but the story pretty much is a one-note affair and, no matter how well that one note is hit, it can get wearisome to hear it over and over, esp. when it's so bleak. July 26, 2007

Truffaut is BORING!

I love "arsty" movies. I love Kurosawa. I like Eric Rohmer. My Dinner with Andre is one of my favorite movies. Those movies are interesting and engaging. Truaffaut is BORING! Ok, a few early movies were "new" for their time with the realism in all, but even those don't hold up well.
Zzzzzzzzzzz. July 18, 2007

Adelle

She chases after a man who doesn't want her. Very French. She finally looses her mind at the end. Much angst. HARD TO WATCH. VERY UNCOMFORTABLE. True story.


March 20, 2007

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