The Lady of the Camellias (French: La Dame aux camélias, Italian: La storia vera della signora dalle camelie) is a 1981 French-Italian drama film directed by Mauro Bolognini and starring Isabelle Huppert.

[1] It tells the actual story of Alphonsine Plessis, who became a famous courtesan in Paris and the inspiration for the novel La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, which has in turn become the source for many plays, operas, ballets, and films.

Alphonsine, growing up motherless in absolute poverty, goes alone to Paris and finds work as a seamstress.

Though he makes her a Countess and gives her a taste for opium, he finds matrimony is not for him and leaves her free to live her own life.

Never short of admirers, she becomes one of the most famous courtesans in Paris, attracting even Franz Liszt.