Cousin Bette is a 1998 British–American comedy-drama film starring Jessica Lange in the title role and is loosely based on the novel of the same name by the French author Honoré de Balzac.

Adeline's husband, the Baron Hector Hulot, has squandered their fortune on an extravagant string of mistresses and plunged them heavily into debt, a fact which stresses the entire family.

Preferring youth and beauty, the pair marry and Wenceslas accepts a prestigious art commission that would guarantee his major debut — if successful.

With Wenceslas dead, the Baron crippled, Hortense in prison, and Victorin in hiding, the family name is in shamed and impoverished tatters, their once-proud home all but shuttered.

She has amassed a small fortune and is now in control of the Hulot family's infant heir, whom she will raise as her own to be a great artist who returns her love.