The Woman Next Door

1981
7.2| 1h46m| R| en
Details

Madame Jouve, the narrator, tells the tragedy of Bernard and Mathilde. Bernard was living happily with his wife Arlette and his son Thomas. One day, a couple, Philippe and Mathilde Bauchard, moves into the next house. This is the accidental reunion of Bernard and Mathilde, who had a passionate love affair years ago. The relationship revives... A somber study of human feelings.

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Reviews

Bardlerx Strictly average movie
Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable
ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
morrison-dylan-fan Taking part in a poll on ICM for the best movies of 1981,I began looking on Amazon UK for DVDs from the year. Already making plans to look at French cinema from the year,I was pleased to find a François Truffaut creation,which led to me going next door. The plot:Working as a teacher in a small town, Bernard Coudray keeps events that happened in his past to himself,with Bernard pushing any questions aside from his wife Arlette and their young son Thomas. Seeing new neighbours moving in next door,the Coudray's decide to go and greet them. Welcomed in by Philippe Bauchard,Bernard begins to fear that he can't keep his past secret,when he is greeted by Philippe's wife Mathilde,who was Bernard's first ever love.View on the film:Supplementing the feature with informative extras, Artificial Eye delivers a classy transfer,with the image and soundtrack being clean,and the subtitles moving at a readable speed. Mentioning in the commentary that they both "clicked" the moment they met François Truffaut,Fanny Ardant (who got married to Truffaut) and Gérard Depardieu both give sparkling performances as Bernard Coudray and Mathilde Bauchard. Afraid of looking back into the past, Depardieu gives Bernard a fragile calm which erupts as he begins welcoming the memories of the past. Being more at ease than Bernard, Fanny Ardant brims Mathilde with a quiet,open confidence,that reveals itself in Mathilde's attempts to get Bernard to open up to Arlette about his past.Keeping track of their decade spanning relationship,co-writer/(with Suzanne Schiffman and Jean Aurel) director François Truffaut & cinematographer William Lubtchansky continue expanding on Truffaut's stylish tracking shots,via the tracking shots here elegantly carrying the passage of time between the couple. Striking an abrasive melancholy final note,Truffaut builds towards the final encounter with Georges Delerue's great "suspense" score gradually gaining ground in the romance.Inspired by the Tristan and Iseult,the screenplay by Truffaut/ Schiffman and Aurel delicately piece together the lingering love that Bernard wants to keep in the past,as the woman next door,opens the door to Bernard's past love.
thor5894 I really wanted to like this one more, it's the kind of domestic drama the French usually do well, but it just didn't work for me. Truffaut takes material grounded in realism and tries to impose a fable-like atmosphere, and ends up in an awkward middle ground. Just one example, he has Fanny Ardant faint at least twice in the movie. Really? Is this 1981 or 1921? I really didn't take to Ardant's performance, though I suspect the script shares the blame for that; she comes off less as a real person than a male construct.The story--Ardant and her husband move next door to Gerard Depardieu and his wife, the two having had an intense affair a decade earlier--is well told and holds interest, but the details are often unconvincing and there's an off-putting tone to the whole affair. For instance, Ardant and Depardieu act frantic about their secret right from the start--but why? Both were single when they were previously a couple, so there would be no scandal in being honest with their spouses, yet both insist on saying nothing. Later in the film, when the truth is exposed, and by this time the two have become adulterous lovers in the present, the respective spouses are maddeningly reasonable about the whole thing. Yeah yeah, they're French, but really, if betrayed spouses always reacted this mildly, people wouldn't feel the need to hide adultery in the first place.This vague inauthentic vibe persists right to the melodramatic ending, which also comes off as oddly emotionally flat.
buff-29 Despite its distinguished provenance, and despite the presence of the stunning Fanny Ardant, this is pure soap. It even has a local busybody chattering background on the characters, a tested U.S. soap-opera technique. Gerard Depardieu is wooden and unconvincing as Ardant's lover. The rest of the cast (except for Ardant) is adequate at best. I don't think Truffault ever made a worse movie. It does exhibit his economy of expression and beautiful style, but nothing can save it from its own sentimentality and simple-mindedness. I don't believe this turkey has ever been in general release in the U.S., which should soften the hearts of even the most savage haters of the French. They did us the favor of keeping this one mostly to themselves.
eric1 Truffaut knows who to tell a story on the screen, this is not a new story, I have seen one like this before in une femme francaise. But a big movie funs can feel better in this one, the way the scenes fade in and fade out,the deep-focus images, the music and the camera motions. I know many people don't like subtitled pictures, but this one is really worth to watch.