CAMILLE CLAUDEL

Isabelle Adjani and Gerard Depardieu magnificently portray sculptors Camille Claudel and August Rodin, whose stormy 15-year relationship ran the course from student and mentor to estranged lovers. Upon seeing the young sculptor's work for the first time, Rodin was impressed with Camille's talents. She became one of his few students, and they developed an intensely passionate affair. Despite her artistic abilities, though, she was swallowed up in Rodin's shadow, and further obscured by her brother Paul's fame as a poet, playwright and diplomat. Camille's intense struggle against Rodin's apparent manipulation and ruin of her life makes for a compelling drama. CAMILLE CLAUDEL, nominated this year for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award, brilliantly illuminates the many layers of the woman's independent spirit.