Die Frau nebenan

Family man Gérard Depardieu is disturbed to learn his new neighbor is, by sheer coincidence, ex-lover Fanny Ardant. Both are happily married, but that doesn't stop them from resuming their affair, with tragic consequences.

The script is nothing new, but François Truffaut's intelligent treatment of the otherwise familiar story avoids the more obvious clichés of popular romantic fiction. It hardly ranks among the director's best efforts, but a pair of talented co-stars and the typically French pre-occupation with l'amour fou help maintain interest all the way to the startling conclusion.

The magic of movies are really present in here, otherwise how come a story that sounds so familiar to us looks very fresh, all brand new to your eyes and ears? François Truffaut makes of "La femme d'à Côté" ("The Woman Next Door"), an apparent clichéd love story, to have the enormous feel of being something complete unknown to us (Obvisouly the film has its moments of originality though).

Bernard (Gérard Depardieu) lives in a small community along with wife (Michèle Baumgartner) and his son, all is happy and well until the house next to his gets bought by the Bauchard (Henri Garcin and Fanny Ardant), a friendly couple, being Mathilde, the woman of the film's title, an old affair of Bernard. And you don't need to be a genius to guess that these two will start off again from the point where they stopped, after years without seeing each other. What is quite obvious as well is that the combination old flames on a new affair might have some tragic consequences for everybody involved.

In "La femme d'à Côté" Truffaut finally managed to balance the instabilities between the characters involved in a relationship, something that, at my view, was only noticed when we pay attention to the female characters like Catherine from "Jules et Jim" and the title character of "The Story of Adele H." in which only the women acted out of desperation, lost their sanity and went through hell with their love affairs. In this more original scenario the man is driven to the point of madness, completely alienated from everything, just thinking in living with his lover (even though, again, it's the woman who suffers more throughout the film). It is balanced since in the other classics the men didn't seem to care much for what was happening to the women (specially in "Adele H." the man was completely cold, ruthless towards the girl who at one time was the love of his life).

And who narrates Bernard and Mathilde's story? An old lady named Madame Odile (nicely played by Véronique Silver), a handicapped woman who survived a suicide attempt by jumping from a building right after being rejected by the man she loved (You can take your conclusions from here). Her story is perfectly connected with the main story of the film.

The way the story swings from a soft comedy, quite gentle in its pace, from a romantic film to a complex drama, all these changes were greatly presented, the variations work because we have a director that really knows how to perform them. But this film doesn't go without some problems, there's some difficult things to accept and see (like when Bernard can't hold any longer his anguish and decides, in front of everybody during a party to show his love for Mathilde in the most dreadful way, a real scandal) as things happening in reality (and most of the film looks realistic so why this created situations in which people couldn't relate with it?). Small problems, nothing so distractive or ruining, neither something that deserves a negative review (the two bad ones featured on the site are amazingly incoherent, illogical, and ridiculous just to say a few words about them).

If the story isn't good enough to make you watch this film, at least go for the director and the actors involved with it, Ardant and Depardieu on their greatest level of acting playing what could be a perfect couple if it wasn't for their complicated lives with their spouses. A special moment from them is their first kiss at the market's parking garage when the woman simply faints on him. Looks absurd but can be explained as something really powerful, all those emotions resurrecting, coming to life again. "What now?" or "Should we start all over again?". And that was only the beginning, going for a newer ending. This time for good. Neither with you or without you. 9/10

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.

This latter period François Truffaut film was one passed on to me by a very kind fellow IMDb user. Having seen Truffaut's Jules et Jim (1962) and not having been particularly blown away by it, I have to admit having feelings of caution with regards this one; particularly given certain similar themes in the plot-line. So I was very pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying this one a great deal more. The story happens in a village in France where a young couple live a contented life. The husband's world is soon turned upside down; however, when a new couple moves in next door in which it turns out the wife was an old lover of his from a relationship that ended acrimoniously.

This is a story about intense yet frustrated love and obsession. It worked very well for me, as the simple story has some fine performances underpinning the drama. Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardent have strong chemistry in the central roles of the adulterous characters conducting their passionate yet troubled affair. As we follow them through the motions, details slowly emerge about their history, although we are never fully given all the pieces to put together all the facets pertaining to their turbulent romantic past. Some mystery remains, which feels right and only makes the characters more compelling if anything. Like Jules et Jim it is in essence a somewhat tragic love story which doesn't really have a good ultimate message to give about the outcome of passionate love affairs. The most important character aside from the central couple is Madame Odile who runs a tennis club that acts as a social hub of the small local community. She became crippled for life after attempting suicide after being rejected by the man she loved; her story acts as a warning from the past for the young lovers, a warning that they ultimately do not or cannot heed.

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")