Benoit Jacquot knew Isabelle Adjani since the time when she shared the life of Bruno Nuytten, its chief operator of L'Assassin musician. It is she who wanted Adolphe (2002): she chose Benjamin Constant's novel to play Ellénore, she attributed the role of Adolphe to Stanislas Merhar, then came to ask him to realize very quickly the film, according to his usual comminatory manner. In fact, he quickly realized that the actress was still in love with Stanislas Merhar, but he had just left her and she had imagined the shoot to win him back. But it was exactly the subject of the novel: a moment of violence and passion exacerbated, the impossibility of the couple, which also feeds the entire filmography Jacquot.