L'Histoire D'Adele H (aka The Story Of Adele H) (1975)

The daughter (Isabelle Adjani) of the renowned author Victor Hugo leaves her family in Europe and relocates to Nova Scotia in pursuit of a soldier (Bruce Robinson) she is in love with. But that obsessive love is a disease that will consume her to the point of madness. Directed by Francois Truffaut and anchored by an extraordinary Oscar nominated performance by Isabelle Adjani. We've all seen movies about obsessive love before but they usually involve a wacky stalker who literally terrorizes the object of her/his "affection". But Adele's obsession turns inward and the destruction is toward herself rather than the soldier she loves until the end, it's no longer about him but the obsession itself. I can't praise Adjani's performance enough. In her breakthrough performance, Adjani is both terrifying and heartbreaking and she inhabits the role completely. This really ranks with Truffaut's best work. The effective underscore is comprised of various pieces by Maurice Jaubert who died some 35 years earlier. With Sylvia Marriott and Joseph Blatchley.