The Story of Adele H.

Set against the gray, windswept shores where the Hugo family lives in exile, the film follows Adèle Hugo, the sheltered and earnest daughter of Victor Hugo, whose quiet life is shattered by an overpowering infatuation with a young British officer, Albert Pinson. Her longing, at first private and hopeful, hardens into a determined pursuit when Pinson spurns her advances. Refusing to accept rejection, Adèle abandons her name and comforts, chasing him across the ocean to Nova Scotia in the belief that persistence will eventually win his love.

Once in Canada she adopts an alias and takes menial work, but Pinson remains indifferent and evasive. Adèle’s conduct becomes increasingly erratic: she stalks him, writes obsessive letters, and constructs fantasies that blur the line between desire and delusion. The narrative charts her slow descent from polite society’s margins into a solitary, self-imposed exile driven by unreciprocated passion.

Told with a stark, intimate gaze, the film is as much a study of isolation and the corrosive power of obsession as it is a period drama. The central performance captures the tragic rigidity of a woman who cannot reconcile her inner narrative with the indifferent world around her, turning a failed romance into a harrowing portrait of psychological collapse.