Isabelle Adjani
The Actress as Auteur
Edited by Romain Chareyron
Examines French actor Isabelle Adjani’s career in film, on television and on stage
- Examines Adjani’s complex star persona through the lenses of performance studies and star studies
- Provides interdisciplinary perspectives on Adjani’s multilayered performances, including issues of ethnicity, aging, and embodiment
- Expands upon the existing body of work on Adjani’s career by including analyses of some of her most recent work, as well as presenting new analytical and interpretative framework for some of her most significant performances
- Films discussed include L’Histoire D’Adèle H., Possession, Camille Claudel and La Reine Margot
As the only performer to win five César Awards, Isabelle Adjani holds a special place in the history of French cinema. Her fame extends beyond French borders as she has also received two Academy Award nominations for L’Histoire D’Adèle H. and Camille Claudel, was the recipient of the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Possession and Quartet, as well as at the Berlin Film Festival for Camille Claudel.
This edited collection explores some of Adjani’s most iconic roles and their reception, in France and abroad. It delves into Adjani’s unique and personal involvement in the roles she has played throughout her career, the way she approached ageing in the later part of her career and the impact it had on her performance and artistic choices.
It provides readers with insights into Adjani’s multifaceted acting skills in order to better understand her unique status in French cinema.
1. Introduction: Isabelle Adjani: The Actress as Auteur
Romain Chareyron
2. In Constant Struggle: Early Formulations of Isabelle Adjani in Faustine et le bel été (1971)
Tim Palmer
3. ‘“I’m your wife. Forever. We’ll stay together until we die”: Adjani’s Portrayal of a Fractured Psyche in L’Histoire d’Adèle H. (François Truffaut, 1975)
Jamie Nicholas Steele
4. “I Recognise the Self Who Has Just Done Something Horrible” – Isabelle Adjani and Performance as Uncanny Self-Disclosure in Possession (Andrzej Żuławski, 1981)
Alison Taylor
5. Cries and Whispers: Adjani’s Voice, Stardom and the Self in L’Eté meurtrier (Jean Becker, 1983)
Sarah Leahy
6. The Star and the Spokesman: Isabelle Adjani, Harlem Désir, and “Coming Out” As Beur
Jerry White
7. Isabelle Adjani Creating Lives in Camille Claudel (Bruno Nuytten, 1988) and La Reine Margot (Patrice Chéreau, 1994)
Homer B. Pettey
8. Adjani’s Virtuosity in Four Moments
Benjamin McCann
9. Romanticism and Realism in Isabelle Adjani’s Film Adaptation of Benjamin Constant’s 19th-century novel Adolphe (Benoît Jacquot, 2002)
Annabelle Doherty
10. Managing Adjani’s Ageing: From Denial to mise en abyme – Gwénaëlle Le Gras
11. Isabelle Adjani on Stage After 2016: Navigating Between Meta-Performance and Artistic Exploration Arnaud Duprat
Isabelle Adjani – Filmography
This volume provides detailed analysis of Adjani’s place in contemporary French cinema, as well as a range of interventions into Star Studies, which have been at the forefront of French film studies for at least two decades. I can’t emphasise enough how this collection represents the very best of French film studies
