Happy Birthday, Isabelle Adjani!

When someone talks about Isabelle Adjani, he mostly mentions Marguerite de Valois, Camille Claudel, Eliane, Anna and Adelie H. This roles of Isabelle Adjani are timeless, but her career does not stop with this films.

That is why, on the day of Isabelle Adjani’s birthday, the one should remember her lesser known roles. I’ve chosen the best, in my opinion, roles and have put them in the chronological order.

1. Violette et Francois (1977)

After L’Histoire D’Adelie H. Isabelle Adjani acted in a film of Roman Polanski («The Tenant»), in a film of Andre Techine («Barocco») and her next film was a tragic comedy «Violette et Francois».

Violette and Francois don’t care about the future. Violette was fired from the bank; Francois was booted from the real estate agency, when his superiors found out that his best «customer» was Violette. Unfortunately, the young couple has a little son Paul and they have to find a way to make ends meet. Francois loses yet another job; he can’t secure funding for his newspaper, so he decides to become a professional shoplifter. After first failed theft, they decide to get married and on the day of the wedding, Violette agrees to help Francois in the shoplifting business.

The film shows that Isabelle Adjani is capable of playing not only tragic heroes. The actress has naturally portrayed the evolution of Violette from the infantile and naïve teenager, who got a crush on the Hooligan and ready to condone all of his activities, to the grown woman capable of tough and painful decisions.

2. Les soeurs Brontë (1979)

Frankly speaking, I have discovered Isabelle Adjani quite recently – on the last summer. After acquaintance with her acting, I have decided to reread The Idiot and I have imagined only Isabelle Adjani as Nastásya Philíppovna. Three months ago, I have decided to read the books of the Bronte sisters.

While reading «Wuthering Heights», I imagined only one actress as Catherine Earnshaw – Isabelle Adjani. Sadly, The Actress has not portrayed Catherine, but she morphed her in the image of Emily Bronte.

When «Wuthering Heights» were first published a lot of critics thought that the writer was a man. Isabelle Adjani showed the crossing of masculine and feminine identity in Emily – dressed in a male's outfit to walk the grey fields; even some men say to her that she should be born as a man. Emily Bronte was the hideous and shy woman, but her seldom outbursts were like the northern wind.

3. Tout feu, tout flamme (1982)

It is not widely known, that Isabelle Adjani has started her career as a comedy actress. Into the troupe of the Comedie-Francaise The Actress has played in classical French comedies. Despite the fact, that Isabelle Adjani Isabelle Adjani has earned her place in the Pantheon after «The Story of Adelie H.». After that, The Actress has been always admired and worshipped for her dramatic roles; nevertheless, she had also sometimes played in cute comedies.

In «Tout feu, tout flamme» Isabelle Adjani shows us a variety of persons: the Princess of Darkness, secretly ruling the French and European economy; the sweet girl, who got to take care of her family; the raging monster, who is ready cut anybody’s throat and so on.

Jean-Paul Rappeneau mixes different genres: comedy; father-daughter drama; gangster film and melodrama. The main theme of this film is the father-daughter conflict, spiced by a comedy sauce.

4. Mortelle randonnée (1983)

Most critics say Mortelle Randonnée is the definitive neo-noir, but this film couldn’t be categorized in just one genre. Claude Miller, the talented apprentice of the Nouvelle Vague cinema, who has worked as assistant with Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Demys, cunningly mixes different genres. Mortelle Randonnée is, one could say, the mix of absurdist tale and noir.

Mortelle Randonnée has a dreamy-like atmosphere: heroine, planning her activities by checking horoscopes, telepathically connecting heroes, supporting characters, which act like a pulp fiction heroes.

Isabelle Adjani gets less screen time but her acting is superb. She shows us a variety of persons: the sweetly naïve student Lucy Brentano, the arrogant top-model Eve Granger, the tragedy-broken Catherine Leiris, and so on. To all those, who say Isabelle Adjani is only fit to play drama queens and a hysterical female, I strongly recommend watching this film.

5. Toxic Affair (1993)

After Camille Claudel Isabelle Adjani has stopped her acting career for five years. She has returned from her «vacation» by acting in Toxic Affair – another forgotten Adjani’s film (along with Tout feu, tout flame, Antonieta, L'année prochaine... si tout va bien and some other).

Toxic Affair would be stupid and boring if it wasn’t for one person, whom we call Isabelle Adjani. The Actress completely steals the show by her magnificent acting. She proves that for the real actress a five year break means nothing. Isabelle Adjani truly captures all hysterics, mood swings, incoherence and egoism of Penelope. The Adjani’s facial expression is superb, as in «The Story of Adelie H.», you could even call this film «The Story of Adelie H. Ultra Light».

Toxic Affair proves that the time break means nothing for the truly great artist – she will electrify after 5, 10 or 20 years.