La femme d'à côté

Very good movie with excellent performances from Gerard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant. The emotions and performances are outstanding. If you have ever felt a strong love that borders on the irrational, then you may identify with this film. There are some small flaws of coincidences in the story. I found the last 20 minutes quite disturbing, and wish the writers found a different one. It seems to imply that real love must have a tragic ending. It is sort of an 19th Century "romantic" ending. Perhaps, that's what they were shooting for in the modern cotext of France in the 1980's. But nonetheless one of Truffaut's better films. What do you think?

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.

A pair of spinning magnets, correspondingly attract, then rotate a little further, universally detract, pulling one way for a while, as they slowly reconcile, then pushing, pushing, pushing, until both of them retract.

It's a can't live with you, can't live without you tale, but you've seen it many times before, as it's hoisted many sails, the difference this time round, is the lady is profound, a performance of some standing, lifts it right up off the ground - but apart from the adorable Fanny Ardant there isn't a lot else to get too excited about, although the rest of the ensemble perform their roles adequately and Gérard Depardieu is more than believable in his highly volatile moments.

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.

Bernard is happily married to his wife Arlette and has a son, Thomas. One day a new couple move in next door: Philippe and Mathilde, the latter of whom is a seductive woman with a secret -- she used to be Bernard's lover...

I love Truffaut's films (of the ones I've seen, anyway) and when I approached this I had a genuine fear of disappointment -- it's one of his later films and I hadn't heard very much about it.

I was surprised to find it's an excellent love story/character examination and better than it is generally given credit for. It's the typically tragic tale reminiscent of those we've seen before in cinema -- a French Romeo and Juliet.

Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant are perfect together and their chemistry sparks. They have the experience that indicates an older relationship; it's very believable, in other words.

Roger Van Hool has a good role as Roland and the rest of the cast are superb as well. Overall this is a fascinating examination of love, marriage, romance, adultery, betrayal and life. In the hands of a master storyteller it is an almost flawless motion picture and certainly one of the best of the decade (one which, incidentally, is not known for producing many good pictures by most critics).