A luminous brunette with porcelain skin and expressive blue eyes, Isabelle Adjani brings a mixture of fragility and fierceness to her screen portrayals. One of France’s leading actresses, she first earned critical praise as a member of the Comedie Francaise, which she joined at age 17. Adjani had already made two features, her debut “Le Petit bougnat” (1969) and “Faustine et le bel ete” (1971), and a TV-movie before she made her stage debut in 1972. Adjani stunned many when she refused a 20-year commitment with the Comedie Francaise in order to pursue a film career. She had garnered praise for her performance as a spoiled teenager in “La Gifle/The Slap” (1974) and went on to earn international stardom as Victor Hugo’s love-obsessed daughter in Francois Truffaut’s “The Story of Adele H.” (1975). That film earned her a number of awards and her first Oscar nomination as Best Actress. It also laid the groundwork for what has become Adjani’s signature role in films: the intense, unstable, infatuated female.
