The Story of Adele H.
The film concerns Adele Hugo, the daughter of novelist Victor Hugo (in films like this and The Last Station, which was about Tolstoy, it's kind of heartening that there was a time when novelists were the world's most famous people). She has followed the man she loves, Pinson (Ben Robertson), a British officer, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the hopes that he will marry her. He's kind of a drip, but our sympathy soon turns to him, as Adele is slowly revealed to be crazy.
So essentially this is a movie about a stalker. Adele, spurned by her former lover, writes her parents that they have married and her father places a wedding announcement in the local paper. This gets Pinson into some trouble, and he exposes Adele's lie. Eventually he is reassigned to Barbados, where she follows, walking through town in a tattered dress, completely mad.
While this film is technically proficient and has an excellent performance by Isabelle Adjani in the title role (she was nominated for an Oscar), at a certain point I came to the realization, why am I watching this? Why does Truffaut think this is an interesting subject? There really isn't much insight into Adele's character. Yes, she lives in her father's shadow, and had a sister who drowned, which troubles her dreams, but I fail to conclude how her story is different than any other woman in a similar situation.
The film does have its moments. My favorite scene has Adele attending the performance of a hypnotist. She goes backstage and wants to hire him to hypnotize Pinson to marry her, but when she sees that he's a fake she storms out of the room.
This film won the Cesar Award, the French equivalent of the Oscar, but I didn't think it was all that great.
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