When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Did anyone else think Pinson intended to kill Adele on that Barbados back street, until he realized that he had finally driven her insane? Bruce Robinson plays the wormy cad to a T, but amazing kudos go to Adjani, as the deeply suffering heart of what Truffaut dubbed his "love story for one." I realize that Adele was an obsessive, masochistic, lying stalker. But she also suffered from the vicarious trauma of her sister's drowning in addition to probably having a tendency toward mental illness. What a case study in the truism that money can't buy you love!Let's not trivialize this great film by reducing it to a "fatal attraction" for the 19th century. What woman hasn't found herself in the position of having given herself to a man only to be callously cast aside?Truffaut beautifully captures the ineffable helplessness of being in this excruciating position.I first saw this film back in 1975 as an undergraduate at Penn State, while majoring in English. I remember telling a poet friend, "I wish I wrote as much as Adele did!" I'd like to believe I have aged as admirably as this powerful work.

Francois Truffaut's historical tale about Victor Hugo's daughter Adele and her obsessive quest for the English soldier she loved is bittersweet and heartfelt at the same time. It takes the true talent and caliber of a director like Truffaut to make a character such as Adele Hugo into a person that ends up being more sympathetic than deplorable. Still, Truffaut does not shy away from the elements that make up her descent into madness and deep sorrow, showing the ways in which she will go to extreme lengths to get what she wants. There is a burning desire in this woman that is both disturbing and admirable at the same time.Isabelle Adjani won much acclaim for her work as Adele and it was well- deserved. At a mere 19, Adjani showed incredible poise as a young actress, capable of carrying virtually the entire picture mostly with her eyes, which are a deep blue and give her face a hauntingly beautiful quality. There is the constant feeling about Adele that she, being the daughter of the famous French poet Victor Hugo, is simply a spoiled rich girl using her father's money to try and buy a husband. Yet, Truffaut does not see it that way. Rather, he views Adele as a tortured soul who had enough passion and love for both herself and the man of her dreams only to receive indifference and cold incredulity. It is a sad film but at the same time a film of remarkable human courage and persistence. Many would question Adele's motivations for doing the things she does, which seem to be purely selfish, but no one can question the heart and passion with which she does it.

Guilt or Passion? 8 Is guilt or passion the driving force behind Adele's obsession for Lt Pinson? I think the former. Maybe it's her re-current dreams of her older sister's tragic death by drowning, maybe it's her conscious guilt over that accident--she wished it because this sister was her father's dear favorite---but for me it's her ENIGMATIC SMILE while viewing her beloved's sexual encounter and her subsequent gift of a prostitute which argue even more deeply for guilt.For how can deep passion cut itself off from the body without abstracting itself? If her love was real, concrete, it was embodied. At that SMILE'S precise moment, passion/love must become guilt/penitence. Or, if this love started with guilt/penitence and Pinson is simply a stand-in for her dead sister, than all that can be left now is suffering. Because it is now brutally clear that the love she seeks--to heal her guilt--has been denied. The physical bond is severed. Pinson has stripped Adele of her body--and thus of her key to response. Now guilt has killed passion and has shut down possibility. Only suffering remains, and Adele's downward spiral into self-destruction has begun. Pinson's cold indifference, selfishness, and womanizing are now mere penance, which she can only passively endure. She may survive--and does, but not as a lover, saint or mystic.

F. Truffautt said that Adele H is about a"face",the beautiful face of Adjani.The indomitable Adele seems to love to much,her passion and intensity proves of how dangerous a "love obsession" could be. Adjani performance sometimes is very disturbing,and she really shines as this dark,genuine,amazing young woman,Adele H is not the most popular of Truffautt movies ,but IMHO is his most solid work,you don't need to be his "fan" to appreciate it.