Top 5 Movies Starring Isabelle Adjani

This year Isabelle Adjani won her fifth César (French Academy Award), and with it entered cinema history as the world’s most César-awarded personality. Here’s a look at the five Adjani films that earned the legendary actress France’s top movie honors.

DISTURBING FANTASY

Possession Andrzej Zulawski, 1981

Isabelle Adjani’s breakthrough came in 1975 with François Truffaut’s L’Histoire d’Ad

èle H. Only 20 at the time, she won international recognition and her first Oscar and César nominations for the role. Adèle H was the stepping-stone and precursor to her many roles playing unstable and obsessed women, at which she excels. In the gripping, horrific Possession by Polish filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski, Mark (Sam Neill) suspects that his wife Anna (Adjani) is cheating on him, but soon discovers that she is hiding a gruesome supernatural secret. With its over-the-top acting and confusing screenplay, Possession received mostly negative reviews, but critics spared Adjani-she received not only her first César for her performance but also the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival.

SEXY AVENGER

L’Eté Meurtrier (One Deadly Summer) Jean Becker, 1983

Adjani won her second César for another edgy, poignant role as a traumatized young woman. Elle (Adjani) moves with her parents to a small village in Provence. All the men are attracted to the beautiful young girl, but she chooses shy Florimond (popular singer Alain Souchon), who soon marries her without realizing that she is using him to achieve revenge on the men who raped her mother 20 years ago. This psychological thriller is based on the eponymous novel by Sébastien Japrisot.

TROUBLED ARTIST

Camille Claudel Bruno Nuytten, 1988

Based on the life of artist Camille Claudel, apprentice, then mistress, of renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin (played by Gérard Depardieu), the film follows Camille (Adjani), a very talented artist herself, through her slow descent into madness after Rodin breaks up with her. Camille’s mother and younger brother, playwright Paul Claudel, finally decide to commit her to a psychiatric hospital, where she remains for 30 years until her death. Adjani is magnificent in the role of yet another passionate, self-destructive character. Produced by Adjani herself, with a feminist feel, and directed by her former companion, Bruno Nuytten, it was an enormous success in France, winning five Césars including best film and best actress; Adjani also won the Silver Bear for best actress at the Berlin Film Festival and received her second Oscar nomination for best actress.

ROYAL RENEGADE

La Reine Margot (Queen Margot) Patrice Chéreau, 1994

Adjani was at the peak of her career when she starred in La Reine Margot, a historical drama based on Alexandre Dumas’s novel. In the late 16th century, France is torn apart by religious rivalry between Catholics and Protestants. To appease the Huguenots (French Protestants), the scheming queen mother, Catherine de Medici (Virna Lisi), has arranged a marriage between her daughter, Marguerite de Valois or “Margot” (Adjani), and Henri de Navarre (Daniel Auteuil)-while at the same time plotting the massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew’s Day. A series of murders and court intrigues follows in this impressive and violent historical drama where Adjani shines as the “French national treasure” depicted by Dumas.

COMEBACK

La Journée de la Jupe (Skirt Day) Jean-Paul Lilienfeld, 2009

From 1994 to 2009, Adjani appeared in only five films and was harshly regarded as a fallen idol by the French media. Then she made La Journée de la Jupe and walked off with a well-deserved fifth César. Sonia Bergerac (Adjani) is a teacher in an inner-city high school, where she has to deal with unmotivated and unruly students. During the rehearsal of a Molière play, she discovers that one student has brought a handgun. As she struggles to grab it, she accidentally fires a shot and injures another student. Disoriented and in shock, she takes her class hostage. While the outside world is trying to figure out what’s happening, inside the classroom Sonia has finally gained her students’ attention and gives them a memorable lesson. As an ordinary teacher in an extraordinary situation Adjani is remarkable.

Other notable Adjani films

La Gifle (The Slap) Claude Pinoteau, 1974. Comedy/drama.

Le Locataire (The Tenant)> Roman Polanski, 1976. Horror.

Barocco André Téchiné, 1976. Drama.

Les Soeurs Brontë (The Brontë Sisters)> André Téchiné, 1979. Biopic.

Quartet James Ivory, 1981. Drama/romance.

Tout Feu, Tout Flamme (All Fired Up) Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1982. Comedy.

Mortelle Randonnée (Deadly Circuit) Claude Miller, 1983. Thriller.

Subway Luc Besson, 1985. Crime/drama.

 

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Originally published in the April 2010 issue of France Today