THE STORY OF ADELE H.

This 1975 film by Francois Truffaut is about Adele Hugo, the second daughter of Victor Hugo.  She is a curious subject since her life is a sad one and not overly dramatic.  

Sad because she suffered from a mental illness, which manifested itself as a romantic obsession with an English soldier, Lieutenant Pinson.  This obsession leads her to follow Pinson to Halifax, Nova Scotia in the 1860s, where the bulk of this film takes place.

We observe her increasingly demented behaviour which culminates in her reaching a point at the end of the film where she, having followed Pinson to Barbados, is quite unable to look after herself.  Fortunately a kind woman takes her in and gets her back to her father, after which she lives the rest of her life in a mental institution.

The film is by no means as depressing as this summary may make it sound, thanks to the expert direction and to an accomplished lead performance by a 20-year old Isabel Adjani, which earned her an Oscar nomination.