The Woman Next Door (1981 film)

The Woman Next Door
Theatrical release poster
French	La Femme d'à côté
Directed by	François Truffaut
Written by	François Truffaut Suzanne Schiffman Jean Aurel
Produced by	Armand Barbault François Truffaut
Starring	Gérard Depardieu Fanny Ardant Henri Garcin Michèle Baumgartner Roger Van Hool Véronique Silver
Cinematography	William Lubtchansky
Edited by	Martine Barraqué
Music by	Georges Delerue
Production companies	Les Films du Carrosse TF1 Films Production
Distributed by	Gaumont Distribution
Release date	30 September 1981 (1981-09-30) (France)
Running time	106 minutes
Country	France
Language	French
Box office	1,101,537 admissions (France)

The Woman Next Door (French: La Femme d'à côté) is a 1981 French romantic drama film directed by François Truffaut. Reminiscent of the medieval legend of Tristan and Iseult but set among young middle-class people in a provincial city, it tells the story of a fatal romance between a loving husband (Gérard Depardieu) and the attractive woman (Fanny Ardant) who moves in next door. The last of Truffaut's serious films, being followed by the more light-hearted Vivement dimanche!, it was the 39th highest-grossing film of the year, with a total of 1,087,600 admissions in France.

Plot

Bernard lives happily with his wife Arlette and young son Thomas in a village outside Grenoble. One day a married couple, Philippe and Mathilde, move into the house next door. Bernard and Mathilde are shocked at meeting each other because years before, when both single, they had a stormy affair that ended painfully. At first Bernard avoids Mathilde, until a chance meeting in a supermarket reawakens long-buried passions and soon, while openly good neighbours, in secret they pursue an affair. Though both find the strain of living their normal family and working lives unbearable, it is Bernard who cracks first. After publicly revealing his violent passion for Mathilde at a garden party, he keeps away from her and the two households try to get on with their lives. But the rejected Mathilde then cracks and, after publicly collapsing at the tennis club, is hospitalised with depression. When she is released, she finds that to get far away from Bernard her husband has moved them out of the village. One night Bernard is woken by a banging shutter on the empty house next door and gets up to investigate. In the house, he spots Mathilde in the darkness. After they have made love on the bare floor, taking a gun out of her handbag she shoots first him and then herself.

Cast

• Gérard Depardieu as Bernard Coudray
• Fanny Ardant as Mathilde Bauchard
• Henri Garcin as Philippe Bauchard
• Michèle Baumgartner as Arlette Coudray
• Roger Van Hool as Roland Duguet
• Véronique Silver as Madame Odile Jouve
• Philippe Morier-Genoud as doctor
• Olivier Becquaert as Thomas Coudray

External links

• The Woman Next Door at IMDb
• The Woman Next Door at AllMovie
• The Woman Next Door at the TCM Movie Database
• The Woman Next Door at AlloCiné (in French)