Based on the diaries of Adele Hugo, L’Histoire d’Adele H. (The Story of Adele H.) recounts the life of the daughter of writer Victor Hugo and her love for a military officer that would lead to her downfall. Directed by Francois Truffaut with a script by Truffaut, Suzanne Schiffman, Jean Grualt, and Frances Vernor Guille, the film is an exploration of a young woman’s encounter with an officer in the mid-19th Century as she is played by Isabelle Adjani. Also starring Bruce Robinson and Sylvia Marriott. L’Histoire d’Adele H. is an intense yet haunting film from Francois Truffaut.
The film is set during the early 1860s in Halifax, Nova Scotia where Adele Hugo travels to the island to find the British officer she lives in Lt. Pinson (Bruce Robinson) as she hopes to marry him despite the fact that he keeps pushing her away. It’s a film that explores a period in Adele Hugo’s life as she goes under different alias so that people wouldn’t know who her father is as she stays at a boarding house run by the kind Mrs. Saunders (Sylvia Marriott). Upon her pursuit for Lt. Pinson, Adele would start to unravel emotionally and mentally as images of her older sister’s death would appear in her nightmares. The film’s script takes place in the span of an entire year from Adele’s arrival to Halifax where Lt. Pinson is stationed in to her growing descent into madness as she would do whatever to claim him.
While Lt. Pinson does care for her, he couldn’t deal with her desperation and antics as she would eventually cause troubled for him in his own life. The first half is about Adele’s pursuit while its second half is about her slow descent to madness and her attempts to ruin the new life that Lt. Pinson is trying to create. Many of which would have Adele claiming to be Lt. Pinson’s wife and claimed to have married him as she would constantly write letters to her family as they would give her money. Yet, Adele’s antics would cause disappointment among her family as they beg her to come home to be with her ailing mother as Adele’s behavior would eventually become more and more erratic towards the end of the film.
Francois Truffaut’s direction is pretty simple yet effective in the way he portrays a year in the life of Adele Hugo. Though the film is shot in the island of Guernsey, where Victor Hugo lived in exile during that time, due to the fact that Halifax didn’t look like what it was during the mid-19th Century. It does play into the world that Adele is in as she tries to go to the various places where Lt. Pinson is at as he is prepared to take part in the American Civil War if it would reach Halifax. The direction has Truffaut use a lot of close-ups and medium shots to maintain an intimacy in the story as well as play into Adele’s growing descent into madness. Early on, she looks like a proper woman but slowly would look ragged and lost as she would follow Lt. Pinson wherever he is as she would become more desperate and erratic. There is also a sense of melancholia that lingers in the film as Truffaut would incorporate that into the story as well as the fate that Adele would eventually succumb to. Overall, Truffaut crafts a very eerie yet evocative film about Adele Hugo’s descent into madness.
Cinematographer Nestor Almendros does amazing work with the film‘s lush and intoxicating cinematography with its use of low-key and natural lights for some of its nighttime exterior and interiors as well as vibrant colors for some of the daytime exterior scenes. Editors Yann Dedet, Martine Barraque, Jean Gargonne, Michele Neny, and Muriel Zeleny do excellent work with the film‘s stylized editing with the use of dissolve for the nightmare sequences as well as jump-cuts and transition wipes to play with its structure. Production designer Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko does fantastic work with the set pieces such as the home that Adele stays at to the taverns and bookstore that she goes to.
Costume designer Jacqueline Guyot is brilliant for the dresses that Adele wears to play into her personality as well as the uniform that Lt. Pinson wears. The sound work of Michel Laurent and Jean-Pierre Rush is terrific for the atmosphere that is presented on many of the film‘s locations including a party that Adele crashes. The film’s music by Maurice Jaubert is superb for its somber orchestral score that plays into Adele‘s growing descent as well as some more chilling pieces in the nightmare sequences.
The film’s wonderful cast includes some notable small roles from Francois Truffaut as a soldier Adele encounters, Cecil de Sausmarez as a notary in a bank Adele goes to, Roger Martin as a doctor who discovers Adele’s true identity yet keeps it a secret, Ruben Dorey as Mr. Saunders, Sir Raymond Falla as a judge whose daughter was to marry Lt. Pinson, and Ivry Gitlis as a hypnotist Adele tries to hire during a show she attends. Joseph Blatchley is terrific as a kind book store owner who tries to help Adele while Sylvia Marriott is excellent as the very warm Mrs. Saunders who makes sure that Adele lives comfortably while keeping her identity a secret.
Bruce Robinson is superb as Lt. Pinson as a man who is being pursued by Adele as he knows that he can’t love her like he used to as he devotes himself to duty and seeking a new life for himself. Finally, there’s Isabelle Adjani in a tremendous performance as Adele Hugo as she brings in this fierce intensity to her character that is filled with anguish and a determination to be loved. Most notably in the way she presents Adele’s descent into madness with a physically and raggedness that is just eerie to watch as it is one of Adjani’s finest performances.
L’Histoire d’Adele H. is a remarkable film from Francois Truffaut that features a magnificent performance from Isabelle Adjani. The film isn’t just an eerie portrait into a woman trying to claim the love of a man who doesn’t love her but an exploration into mental illness and a woman’s desperation that would lead to madness. In the end, L’Histoire d’Adele H. is a phenomenal film from Francois Truffaut.
Francois Truffaut Films: The 400 Blows - Shoot the Piano Player -Jules & Jim - Antoine & Colette - The Soft Skin - Fahrenheit 451 - The Bride Wore Black - Stolen Kisses - Mississippi Mermaid - The Wild Child - Bed and Board - Two English Girls - Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me - Day for Night - Small Change - The Man Who Loved Women - The Green Room - Love on the Run - The Last Metro - The Woman Next Door - Confidentially Yours
The Auteur #40: Francois Truffaut (Pt. 1) - (Pt. 2)
© thevoid99 2014
Written and directed by Bruce Robinson, Withnail and I is the story of two unemployed actors stay in a cottage for a week only for the holiday to go absolutely wrong testing the friendship of these two men. The film is an exploration into the lives of two very troubled men who drown their sorrows through alcohol and all sorts of vices only to find their holiday to be an unpleasant experience. Starring Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Ralph Brown, and Richard E. Griffiths. Withnail and I is a farcical yet witty comedy from Bruce Robinson.
It’s 1969 as two unemployed actors named Withnail (Richard E. Grant) and I (Paul McGann) go on a trip to the British countryside to take a break from their dilapidated lives only to find the trip to be unpleasant. Dealing with rain, lack of resources, and a willingness to get drunk, things get worse when Withnail’s uncle Monty (Richard E. Griffiths) arrives who tries to seduce I as things eventually go wrong for the two friends. It’s a film that explores the relationship of these two actors who are down on their luck as they’re waiting for a break yet nothing is happening. By taking a holiday, they hope that things will get better but they encounter lots of misadventures and moments that would test their friendship just as things were already problematic to begin with.
Bruce Robinson’s screenplay is based on his own struggles with alcoholism and life as a young struggling actor as the script is told largely from the perspective of I. A young man who lives in this very filthy flat with his friend Withnail as they’re both very talented but unable to find work as actors. There are some voice-over narration from I reflecting on his experiences as he also sees Withnail going through similar struggles except he is more selfish and comes from a very different background where he has a rich uncle who is gay. By going to the country to stay at Monty’s cottage on a week-long holiday, the two expect for things to be OK but it doesn’t. Monty’s unexpected visit would make things worse as Withnail would take advantage of his uncle’s generosity while making him claim that I is also gay.
Once in the country, Withnail and I enter a world that is far removed from their life in Camden as they don’t understand the way things work as they feel like they can come in and do whatever they want. Through some of Robinson’s witty dialogue, the two would often quote lines from plays and such while use their acting skills to bullshit their way through any situation. By the third act, things do go into chaos as it involves not just prospects for one of the men but also an indication of where things are going just as the 60s are about to end.
Robinson’s direction is very lively in the way he captures a period in time that reflects his experience in the late 1960s. Notably as he creates scenes that play up to this world of dreariness that is in sharp contrast to the peace-and-love vibe of the times. Withnail and I don’t look or dress like hippies but rather men who live in their own world filled with booze, pills, and other things. Yet, they’re comfortable with it except they’re low on money and are unable to find work. Robinson uses a lot of medium shots and some close-ups to establish the mood of these characters as well as some wide shots of their environment including some beautiful locations in the British countryside near Shap and Bampton. There, Robinson uses these wide shots and other compositions to establish the sense of alienation of these two men from this world they’re in.
Robinson’s approach to comedy is based on a sense of improvisation to add the sense of something unexpected. Notably in one of the film’s most famous scenes in which Withnail and I go into a tea café and demand cakes and wine just as the place is about to close. There are also some very comical moments involving Monty’s attempt to woo I as Monty is clueless to the fact that I isn’t gay and I becomes very uncomfortable. Still, Robinson does maintain that air of theatricality in the performances as it relates to Withnail and I acting their way into a situation as if they’re doing Shakespeare in certain places. Overall, Robinson crafts a very charming and off-the-wall comedy about a holiday gone wrong.
Cinematographer Peter Hannan does nice work with the film‘s low-colored photography from the dreary look of Camden and the countryside in the daytime during the rain to the more low-key lighting schemes in some of the film‘s nighttime interior scenes. Editor Alan Strachan does terrific work with the editing by using rhythmic cuts to play out some of the film‘s humor along with some straightforward cutting in some of its dramatic moments. Production designer Michael Pickwoad and art director Henry Harris do wonderful work with the look of Withnail and I’s dirty flat as well as the cottage they stay in.
Costume designer Andrea Galer does superb work with the costumes to complement the dreary look of the film while giving Monty some finer clothes to represent his flamboyant personality. Sound editor Alan Paley does some excellent work with the sound to capture the atmosphere of the scenes in the cottage as well as some scenes in the flat. The film’s music by David Dundas and Rick Wentworth is brilliant as it’s mostly a folk-based score to play out the emotions of the characters while its music soundtrack consists of music from the times that included some jazz as well as cuts by King Curtis, Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles.
The casting by Mary Selway is amazing as it features some very memorable small roles from Michael Elphick as a poacher from the countryside and Ralph Brown as the philosophical hippie Danny. Richard E. Griffiths is splendidly funny as Withnail’s uncle Monty as he tries to woo I while dealing with some of the chaos that goes on in his cottage. Finally, there’s the duo of Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann in outstanding performances in their respective roles of Withnail and I. Grant brings a very wild performance as a man who loves to drink and takes control of any situation where Grant is always commanding while spouting all sorts of quotes. McGann brings a more reserved performance as the straight-man I as he also displays some great comic reactions to his own situations including those involving Monty. Grant and McGann together make a fantastic comic team as they pillage and act their way into every situation as they are a major highlight to the film.
Withnail and I is an incredible film from Bruce Robinson that features brilliant performances from Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann. It’s a film that is truly filled with absurd and shocking moments while not giving in towards convention as it’s also very funny. It’s also a very captivating film that explores a holiday gone wrong when it involves two unemployed men with nothing to do in the late 60s. In the end, Withnail and I is a remarkable film from Bruce Robinson.
Bruce Robinson Films: (How to Get Ahead in Advertising) - (Jennifer 8) - (The Rum Diary)
© thevoid99 2013
