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The Story of Adele H. | 
| Actors: Isabelle Adjani, Joseph Blatchley, Louise Bourdet, Geoffroy Crook, Cecil De Sausmarez
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: Video
List Price: $19.98
Buy Used: $0.88
You Save: $19.10 (96%)
New (22) Used (6) from $0.88
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 42523
Format: Color, Original Recording Reissued, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 97 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0792840518
UPC: 027616737731
EAN: 9780792840510
ASIN: B00000IBS9
Theatrical Release Date: 1975
Release Date: March 2, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: VHS. Ex-Video Rental with Original Artwork/Coverbox. Some coverboxes may be cut and inserted in a clear plastic case. Guaranteed to play.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Francois Truffaut's dramatization 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 is 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 a half-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 farther and farther 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 color, 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 mix 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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Drowning in an ocean of unrequited love. March 5, 2008
G. Merritt (Boulder, CO)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Adele 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. Francois 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'Adele H.), starring Isabelle Adjani (Camille Claudel, Possession) in the title role. Set in the 1860s and anchored in the actual diaries and letters of Adele 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, Adele is the female counterpart of Don Quixote. The film follows Adele 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 Adele 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 Adele 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
Smokin' hot! January 17, 2008
Myrna Minkoff (New Orleans, LA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Isabel Adjani may be playing a character with a loose screw. But I am telling you, the babe is smokin' hot!
 Tragic, True Story Bogged Down by Repetitiveness July 26, 2007
R. Baker (Chicago, IL)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
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.
 Truffaut is BORING! July 18, 2007
EugeSchu (WI USA)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
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.
Adelle March 20, 2007
Fred Monroe (Roanoke VA USA)
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
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.
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