Barnes & Noble

Director François Truffaut's stark 1975 film The Story of Adèle H. uses a published account of Victor Hugo's daughter as a jumping-off point, examining her descent into madness as an obsessive chase. Adèle (Isabelle Adjani) tracks a former lover, Lt. Albert Pinson (Bruce Robinson), over an ocean and two continents. At the beginning the film, she is harassing him in letters from a boardinghouse near his post in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She recites the missives aloud as she looks in the mirror and as she walks down the street, and she lies to her father about an impending marriage to her beau. Truffaut jumbles the film with very jagged editing, especially in Adèle's initial confrontation with Pinson. Like someone attacking a canvas with an X-Acto knife, Truffaut cuts in an awkward shot of Adèle lunging toward Pinson, who is turning away. Only a split second in length, it underscores what Truffaut is really doing in this adaptation: atomizing Adèle's emotionally unsteady point of view. This serrated quality makes the tragedy all the more compelling; marking The Story Adèle H. as Truffaut's finest foray into gothic cinema. Eddy Crouse

All Movie Guide

Based on the real-life diaries of Adèle Hugo, The Story of Adele H. is a psychological drama opening in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the 1860s. The daughter of famous French writer Victor Hugo, Adèle (Isabelle Adjani) has left her father's home to seek out her fiancé, the English soldier Lt. Albert Pinson (Bruce Robinson). She conceals her identity and rents a room in a boarding house from Mrs. Saunders (Sylvia Marriott). Pinson wants nothing to do with her, but she still obsessively follows him and spies on his affairs. Spending her time writing madly in journals and letters, she eventually meets the bookseller (Joseph Blatchley), who develops an interest in her. Her madness grows when Mrs. Saunders discovers her true identity, and even more so when the bookseller gives her a copy of her father's latest work, Les Miserables. When Pinson is transferred to Barbados, Adèle follows him again and sinks into insanity, living on the street. With the help of a local woman, Madame Baa (Madame Louise), Adèle returns home to her father and spends the rest of her days writing in her diary in Paris. Andrea LeVasseur

Product Details

• UPC: 027616858030
• Source: MGM (VIDEO & DVD)
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Vistavision (1.66:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: monaural
• Language: Français
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español
• Time: 1:38:00
• Sales Rank: 11,402

Features:

DVD MENU