La femme d'à côté

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).

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?

La Femme d'a Cote shows violent emotional state of two melancholic lovers.Truffaut wanted to reveal the extreme steps of frustrated love.It is a brilliant story of passion set in the provincial french town of Grenoble which shows that love is the only thing that is universal.Bernard and Mathilde are truly the perfect lovers Truffaut wished to exploit in his film.There is a sense of urgency in their love affair as in a place where all the people know each other,it is highly improbable that any love affair can remain a secret.La Femme d'a Cote has agreeably given an idea about small town charm wherein Truffaut has vividly portrayed all the minor details of provincial life.Truffaut,while filming La Femme d'a Cote,hoped that the viewer would not be tempted to take sides in order to call one wrong and the other wrong but would love them both as he has loved them.Truffaut will remain the only filmmaker who has mastered the art of human emotions.La Femme d'a Cote gives an impression of an affecting account of human foibles by illustrating how a happy married man sacrifices everything for trivial passion.

An outstanding love story, with an astonishing, riveting performance from Fanny Ardant. My own love affair with Truffaut began as a teenager when I first saw "Jules and Jim." But "La femme d'a cote" moved me most directly and most powerfully of all his great work. Is love "toujours triste"? No, not always sad; now that I'm in my forties, I'm much less a romantic. And love may be of many varieties. But deep romantic love, I do believe, rarely appears on screen as honestly portrayed as here. "The Woman Next Door" presents us with the power, the physical impact of love, the way it "takes our breath" away and so much more. Truffaut so often focuses on love, and usually more positively and in a greater variety of ways than other great directors. But if you want funny, fresh young love, see Truffaut's "Soft Skin" or even "Don't Shoot the Piano Player. His films which are more about infatuation versus love, i.e., the original (Truffaut's film, not the American one with Bert Reynolds) "The Man Who Loved Women" or even the Hitchcock tribute "The Bride Wore Black" while "darker" in tone -- all these remain quite funny, generally light in tone, and quite lively in pace and style. In "The Woman Next Door," more tragic, melancholic moments appear -- it's more akin to the highly autobiographical "The 400 Blows," which tells of Truffaut's difficult adolescence. Yet it has its lighter moments, too. My own response was a strong interest in the drama, the suspense, and astonishment at the beauty of the story, the acting, and the many moments of cinematic genius. Truffaut did, personally, fall in love with Ardant, the lead actress here; they married, so just how much autobiography went into this tale and film -- I don't know. "Next Door" represents Truffaut in a mature phase of his life and career, one which shot off like a rocket and just kept climbing. Ardant went on to act well in many other films, even in several after Truffaut's death. In her starring role here, she made her debut to my acquaintance. She stunned me; I thought I knew Truffaut's work well enough -- after ten to twelve years of trying to see everything available by him, reading about him, and so forth. Yet this film knocked me out, all the same. Superb.

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")