The Woman Next Door (1981)

In Grenoble, Bernard Coudray (Gérard Depardieu) and his wife Arlette Coudray (Michèle Baumgartner) are happily married with their son Thomas. When the next door house is rented to the flight controller Philippe Bauchard (Henri Garcin) and his wife Mathilde Bauchard (Fanny Ardant), Arlette invites the couple for a dinner party but Bernard avoids Mathilde. When they meet each other in the supermarket, they recall their love affair that traumatically ended eight years ago. However their love rekindles and they meet each other in a hotel room. But once together again, they have a stormy affair that ends again with tragic consequences."La femme d'à côté", a.k.a. "The Woman Next Door", is a tragic and powerful romance by François Truffaut with the love story of a stormy couple reunited again after eight years by chance but that cannot be together. The performances are magnificent and the conclusion is predictable. The final quote of the narrator Madame Odile Jouve for their epitaph is perfect ("Neither with you, nor without you."). My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Mulher do Lado" ("The Woman Next Door")

One thing about François Truffaut is that his movies are usually very interesting. Some are very good, some not quite as much, but one thing is for sure: they're never bad.This one is another good film by Truffaut. It's a crazy, nearly sick movie about love, yet I like it precisely for its craziness. French movies are often crazy and that is one of the reasons why I love them.This is the story of Bernard Coudray and Mathilde Bauchard, who had a love affair years ago. They are now married and become neighbors. At first Bernard avoids her, but it doesn't take long until their old passion reawakens. However, neither of them is prepared for the consequences of this... there is even a tragedy in store for them at the end. It's exactly like Madame Jouve says: «Ni avec toi, ni sans toi...» («Neither with you, nor without you...»).Gérard Depardieu is great as Bernard Coudray. Plus, it's a surprise to see him in his earlier years, slim and much younger.Fanny Ardant is equally great as Mathilde Bauchard. And even though Fanny's face is not the prettiest I've ever seen, she oozes elegance and sexiness.I also enjoy the acting of Véronique Silver as Madame Odile Jouve, who also does a good job in narrating this story.Title in Portugal: 'A mulher do lado'.

This is perhaps the most Chabrol-ian of Truffaut films. It has the lighthearted sense of wonder that permeates even Truffaut's darkest films (such as this one)but the claustrophobic, cerebral tension of a Chabrol film.But while Chabrol always embraced the dementedness of his subject matter, Truffaut doesn't really acknowledge the truth of how awful his characters' lives are. Truffaut looks for beauty and wonder in everything, even things that don't merit it. He is fascinated by their quirkiness and doesn't really acknowledge the consequences of their actions on the people around them.In addition, this film, like many of Truffaut's, is mystified by women, while perhaps being too accepting of men. Chabrol, as male- centric as his films can be, spares neither gender in his depictions of mental illness and emotional cruelty.But in this film, the camera dwells on Fanny Ardant's nervous, quivering face, even when she's going about her daily business, as if to invite the audience to gawk at her feminine hysteria. Meanwhile, the camera goes easy on Gerard Depardieu, staying at a comfortable distance and never lingering, no matter how irrational and strange his character acts.It's most interesting for its parts - the scenery (including Gerard Depardieu's workplace, which is a canal full of model oil tankers), the cinematography, the acting, the Delerue music, et al. But it's missing something. If you enjoy the naive, bewildered, and subtly misogynistic perspective that Truffaut takes in this movie, you might love it. Truffaut came from the same worldview in "Jules and Jim" - "the world is wonderful and women are crazy" - but in that movie, he had a tongue-in-cheek style and playful, larger- than-life story to go along with it. This movie has a more realistic, down-to-earth plot and setting, and Truffaut's weaknesses show through.If you're not a Chabrol fan, you likely won't be able to put your finger on what's missing. But if you're a Chabrol fan, you've seen this story before, and you've seen it done better.

A young, almost boyish Gerard Depardieu stars in 'The Woman Next Door', one of Francois Truffaut's later films. In some ways, it's a stereotypically French affair, a stylish and urbane story of passionate love. But the film itself, though nicely observed, fails to really catch fire. One reason may be the fact that their isn't much in the way of character development, not because the characters are one-dimensional but because they are fully described in the premise, and change little thereafter. We are told that the central figures are in love, but know they could not live together, and what follows is merely the logical exposition of this. Another is that they themselves seem the biggest obstacles to their own happiness. Therefore, though the film is watchable throughout, as a whole it amounts to little more than a collection of its parts, rather than a great and profound tragedy. Other work by this director packed a greater punch.