The Films of Isabelle Adjani

The ongoing tribute to Isabelle Adjani at French Institute Alliance Française continues, on Sept. 24, with “The Story of Adèle H.,” from 1975, in which Adjani starred, at the age of nineteen, and for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. This historical drama, directed by François Truffaut, is based on the diaries of Adèle Hugo, the French writer Victor Hugo’s daughter, and unites Truffaut’s three central themes—doomed love, family conflict, and writing. The action, set in 1863, is centered on Adèle’s hopeless obsession with a British officer named Pinson (Bruce Robinson); she follows him to his new post in Halifax and takes increasingly delusional measures to persuade—or, if necessary, force—him to marry her. She lies to her disapproving father about her intentions; she also pours out her emotional turmoil in her diary and writes bitterly of women’s dependence on their fathers and husbands. Adjani’s fiercely focussed performance, augmented by Truffaut’s Hitchcockian stylings, captures the desperate ardor with which Adèle dashes toward humiliation and ruin. (French Institute Alliance Française, Sept. 24, and streaming.)