Isabelle Adjani’s name is synonymous — at least for me — with French historical costume films. As someone who got/had to watch Camille Claudel multiple times in French class, I was familiar with her, but it was when Queen Margot came out that I was struck by her porcelain beauty and Snow White look. She’s also pretty darn talented in my opinion, and while she’s succumbed to anti-aging pressure, I’m glad she’s still around.
L’école des Femmes (1973)
This TV movie was an adaptation of a Molière play, and the costumes look pretty low budget.
L’avare (1974)
More TV, more Molière, but how cute is that hair?
Le Secret des Flamands (1974)
Another TV movie, this one medieval, I guess? The Flemish have secrets, yo!
Ondine (1975)
Still rockin’ the TV movie! An adaptation of a 1938 play that is set in the middle ages, about Ondine, a water sprite.
The Story of Adele H (1975)
Wherein Adjani begins her streak of tragic roles. This time, she’s Victor Hugo’s real-life daughter, and she follows her soldier boyfriend to Nova Scotia in 1863ish. Things don’t end well.
Les Soeurs Brontë (1975)
Welp, Trystan didn’t hate it, so that’s saying something! I made it about 5 minutes into this darkly lit and depressing fiesta.
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Arty director Werner Herzog and Dracula. Adjani plays Lucy in the now-classic story.
Quartet (1981)
An early Merchant/Ivory film. In 1920s Paris, Adjani’s character gets involved with an older, married, British couple.
Antonieta (1982)
As a Mexican writer who committed suicide in Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral in 1931.
Camille Claudel (1988)
If you’ve studied French and haven’t watched this, I’m not sure I believe you. Adjani plays a real-life, late 19th-century sculptor who was taken under Rodin’s wing, became his lover, and then basically lost it when he dumped her. Because men, especially ones whose names are Gerard Depardieu, are jerks.
Queen Margot (1994)
Okay, so the hair is questionable (if beautiful), and Margot herself isn’t always the most likable, but you’ve got some great scenes of Paris and hot hot HOT sex with hot hot hottie Vincent Perez. Against a wall.
Adolphe (2002)
A tragic (shocker) love affair in 19th-century France, of which one plot summarizer on IMDB says “Eventually this emotional charade ends up in death and misery,” which sounds about right for 19th-century France.
Bon Voyage (2008)
Adjani plays one of four characters trying to escape Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II.
Figaro (2008)
The classic late 18th-century Beaumarchais play, this time adapted for TV.
What’s your favorite among Isabelle Adjani’s historical roles? Are any 19th-century French novels/movies not tragic?
To answer your questions, I liked her best when she worked at the Comédie Française… And yes, there are, but she doesn’t play in it.
She’s very talented, but has a tendency for drama and outright depressing stories.
And just a tiny point: Those costumes aren’t low budget (Comédie Française, people, probably the last French theatre that has an in house costume department!), they follow the “let’s make everything more simple and modern” tendency.
Went to the Comédie last year, and am sad to report they’re not out of it yet. sigh
It’s a bonnet in Adolphe – I’m not all that thrilled! But if it was a hat, yes! And if it was a black veil, even more! But the little glasses, totally on board!
And even tho I took 5 years of French, I’ve never seen Camille Claudel. But I read Sartre & Camus :)
Gotta go with Queen Margot (gorgy costumes & sex against wall) and Camille Claudel. Claudel was very a talented sculptor who IMHO if she had loved would have surpassed Rodin, Burghers of Calais notwithstanding.
Nosferatu and La Reine Margot for me. Fun fact: near the end of Nosferatu, Lucy wears a rather nice replica of the gown in William Morris’ La Belle Iseult.