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Amazon.co.uk Review
The Story of Adele H is Francois Truffaut's dramatisation of the true story of Adele Hugo, the daughter of French author-in-exile Victor Hugo, and her romantic obsession with a young French officer. It's a cinematically beautiful and emotionally wrenching portrait of a headstrong but unstable young woman. Adele (Isabelle Adjani, whose pale face gives her the quality of a cameo portrait) travels under a false name and spins half-a-dozen false stories about herself and her relationship to Lieutenant Pinson (Bruce Robinson), the Hussar she follows to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Pinson no longer loves her, but she refuses to accept his rejection. Sinking further and further into her own internal world, she passes herself off as his wife and pours out her stormy emotions into a personal journal filled with delusional descriptions of her fantasy life.
Beautifully shot by Nestor Almendros in vivid colour, Truffaut's re-creation of the 1860s is accomplished not merely in impressive sets and locations but in the very style of the film: narration and voiceovers, written journal entries and letters, journeys and locations established with map reproductions, and a judicious use of stills mixing old-fashioned cinematic technique with poetic flourishes. The result is one of Truffaut's most haunting portraits, all the more powerful because it's true. --Sean Axmaker
Special Features
French
Region 2
English
Region 2
English
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
this movie was based on Adèle H (Hugo) diaries. she's madly (in true sense)with lt. Pinson who doesn't share her feelings. when she decides to join him in halifax and faces the fact that he won't ever correspond her love, her obsession will bring her to madness.
this, in a few words, is the story. what it's impossible to tell is the beauty of the film (cinematography by Nestor Almendros) and the power of the acting.
this film, and the fact that is bound to reality, doesn't allow the viewer to feel detached from what happens on screen. furthermore, the intelligence of the screenplay and the directing never allow the story to fall in cheap melodrama.
this is also an occasion to watch Adjani's first international role which brught her an Oscar nomination in 1976.
this, in a few words, is the story. what it's impossible to tell is the beauty of the film (cinematography by Nestor Almendros) and the power of the acting.
this film, and the fact that is bound to reality, doesn't allow the viewer to feel detached from what happens on screen. furthermore, the intelligence of the screenplay and the directing never allow the story to fall in cheap melodrama.
this is also an occasion to watch Adjani's first international role which brught her an Oscar nomination in 1976.
ABOUT THE DVD
picture and sound are ok but nothing more. no extras (at least an introduction by Serge Toubiana, as in others Truffaut's DVDs, would have been necessary.
Director: François Truffaut
Story: Frances Vernor Guille (from Adèle Hugo's diaries)
Screenplay: Jean Gruault, Suzanne Schiffman, François Truffaut
Music (non original): Maurice Jaubert
Cinematography: Nestor Almendros
Editing: Martine Barraqué, Yann Dedet Jean Gargonne Michèle Neny, Muriel Zeleny.
Actors: Isabelle Adjani, Bruce Robinson, Sylvia Marriott, Joseph Blatchley, Ivry Gitlis, Louise Bourdet e altri
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This film is more fun than I expected based on a brief precis of the plot: young woman in love pursues the suitor who rejected her. Sounds a bit dismal, but actually Adjani's performance and the single-minded - if deranged - courage and energy of Adele make her a more sympathetic and compelling figure. She is clearly driven by forces outside of her control, and like a true tragic heroine in the proper sense finds herself plummeting out of her social world, the reality recognised by those around her, and even out of any connection with the people she knows. This strange, elemental journey takes us through the absurd, the ridiculous, the otherworldly vortex of total erotic fixation in a way that many could relate to, although few who had endured it would want to repeat the experience except by proxy. What I liked best is that it focused on Adele so compassionately that it is impossible to despise her or dismiss her for acting out her internal drama - she is unhinged, but she is brave and a heroine, and doesn't try to lie to herself about the inevitability of her feelings. If there's a moral to this story, it's that though love is a game to some people, to others it isn't and indeed cannot be, and you never know what might happen when you toy with another human mind.
13 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
We are told at the beginning that this is a true story - and sure enough, Victor Hugo did have a daughter called Adele who had an unrequited passion for an English soldier and this is based on her diaries. So far, so true. The problem is it takes place in the late 1860s and we find out at the end that Adele was born in 1830. That means she was in her late 30s when she was pursuing this young officer and not the young fresh-faced, charming, beautiful waif portrayed by Isabelle Adjani. By the standards of her day, a single woman in her late 30s was an old maid, whose best chances of marriage had gone. Lieutenant Pinson's reaction to her - his horror, his embarrasssment ("You're ridiculous!" he says at one point) - is intellegible only if you consider her true age; whereas, any man who turns down the advances of a young Isabelle Adjani must be nuts! So, the film doesn't ring true - Pinson's rejection of her, even after she receives written consent from her parents, is incomprehensible. Everyone else in the movie falls under her enchanting spell, making it all the more strange. Had Truffaut been more honest and cast an older actress, the true story would have been more apparent: Adele would come across as more pathetic, Pinson's rejection more comprehensible. Adjani's performance is very good, but what might it have been if it had been made ten years later?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Utter pretentious rubbish
I struggle to think of a worse film I have ever seen.
I can only imagine the other reviews that recommend this film have been written by people enthraled to the concept that... Read more
I can only imagine the other reviews that recommend this film have been written by people enthraled to the concept that... Read more
Published on 7 April 2010 by Sean OHara
love will tear us apart
Isabelle Adjani, aged 20... mmm... hold that thought. And if that makes you feel glad all over, then this film is for you. Read more
Published on 13 Jan 2005 by "lee_hutchinson"
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