Adolphe by Benoît Jacquot (France, 2002, 102 min.). Based on Benjamin Constant’s renowned 19th-century novel, Adolphe sees Benoît Jacquot focusing his cool, distanced eye on an affair of impassioned amour fou. At a party, a fickle young rake named Adolphe (Stanislas Merhar) spies a vulnerable widow and determines to have her for himself. It’s not long before the impressionable Elléonore (Isabelle Adjani) finds herself unable to resist the advances of her would-be suitor, and the two embark on an affair—which Adolphe later decides to end just as suddenly. What follows is the fallout of an obsessive relationship. Jacquot manages to invest the tale with a sensibility that is forceful without being maudlin. This results in scenes of shattering emotive power, where surface beauty cannot conceal the intensity of the feelings depicted.