Review of Story Of Adele H, The

Introduction

Ok, a quick confession first. Readers of my column may have noted that I once had a bit of a dig at François Truffaut for bringing agony and depression to my French A Level studies. We had to watch many of his films, and the ones selected weren`t really designed to appeal to those in the 16-18 age bracket.

L`Histoire d`Adèle H. was not a film that we were subjected to, so I approached with an open mind. My last Truffaut experience was Le dernier métro which was rather good, so my hopes were high.

The story is about Victor Hugo`s daughter, Adèle, and a little of what happens is outlined above.

Video

A non-anamorphic 1.66:1 transfer is on show, but it`s a little bit of a mess for most of the time. There`s quite a bit of film grain, lots and lots of dirt and dust and also some other unsightly blemishes which pop up on screen from time to time. Some of the colours look rather dull too. I expected more from MGM, given that even Tartan can do a pretty good job with an old French film (Le dernier métro springs instantly to mind).

Audio

A DD French soundtrack, which is the original mono soundtrack. For those who prefer dubbed soundtracks (not me!), you`re out of luck, as the film is not available in English. If your French is a little rusty, and is anything less than A Level, you might struggle a lot without those subtitles. The dialogue flows thick and fast, and the subtitles do miss out quite a bit from time to time. So you can watch it without knowing lots of French, but you`ll be missing little bits out because the translations sometimes leave much to be desired...

Features

Just a terrible US trailer.

Conclusion

Even though time has healed some wounds (enough for me to enjoy Le dernier métro immensely), it can`t erase all of the memories of the past. And some of them came flooding back, as this film reminded me of the tedium of Truffaut when I studied him. The film just seems to flounder around with some rather dull characters who all seem to lack any depth.

Once again Truffaut concentrates on a character who is obsessed with something or other (I`m reminded of the annoying Antoine Doinel here), and this obsession with obsession really seems to bug me. One or two of his techniques also still annoy to this day, so it seems that all is not forgiven and all is not forgotten. Sorry François.

So for me a dull film, wrapped in a rather uninspiring package. If you`re a fan of the film though, this DVD is the best you`re going to get until someone else gets their hands on it.