*The Woman Next Door is 1981 French film directed by the critically acclaimed director François Truffaut. I personally love this film because of the character development curve of the two protagonists. The film does not lose its pace and keeps the viewer's attention intact throughout. You can search the web for more information on the film.
The Woman Next Door is an unusual and unsettling tale of passion and love. The film illuminates a series of otherwise invisible connections that can come to light under the right circumstances. These connections can break all societal and moral boundaries.
Bernard (the protagonist), his wife and their son enjoy the middle-class lifestyle in their refurbished farmhouse in Grenoble. A stone house next to theirs, long vacant, has been rented by Philippe and Mathilde ( the second protagonist). As Bernard and his wife greet their new neighbors, a strange look passes between him and Mathilde. Their respective mates remain oblivious, although each is aware that there was a traumatic break-up in their spouse’s past. Bernard and Mathilde were one of those couples who couldn’t live with each other and couldn’t live without each other.
Bernard, in a vain attempt to resist contact with the neighbor couple, becomes ill-tempered. Mathilde deludes herself that a friendship is possible. Two invisible connections—the longing gaze from the window of one house to the window of the other, and the connection by telephone—lead to the rekindling of their romance in at a hotel. Their hotel room, the windows through which they gaze at each other are strong motifs in the story. The Director effectively uses long shots, which are devoid of any dialogues. The motifs send stronger messages here than dialogues can.
This is a story of addiction, of one and another. Neither Bernard nor Mathilde expresses guilt in regards to their spouse (for a while, at least); it’s possible that each believes that this “love” they get from each other makes them a whole person as both of them were married to people were devoted to them and yet, could not resist lusting for each other.
The Woman Next Door is narrated by Madame Jouve (who is another seemingly unimportant character but turns out to be one of the most critical ones), owner of a tennis club. When she was young and despondent over a heartbreak, Jouve threw herself from a window. She did not die but lost a leg, and now wears a prosthetic and uses a cane. Her wise, non-condemning perspective is essential to this story. Madame Jouve’s story establishes a point of view that the director intends to draw us to. In the opening shot of the movie, Madame Jouve introduces us to the couple and starts narrating the story. However, we do not see her role in the story for long and it feels as if she is being treated merely as a spectator of the entire incident.
One important turning point of the story arrives when Mathilde and her husband decide to take a vacation and Bernard wants Mathilde to stay. He does not have a legitimate reason and is seemingly obsessed with her. As Bernard follows Mathilde to her room, he notices her luggage – a motif again – which makes him realize that she must leave him. The luggage ticks Bernard off and he loses his control, followed by a violent drama which unravels Bernard and Mathilde’s steamy affair in front of the entire community.
Mathilde suffers from chronic depression as she fights with the dilemma between passion and morals. Both Mathilde and Bernard find themselves in a toxic love which consumes them. Anything that reminds her of Bernard, draws her back into a phase she desperately wants to run away from. Her constant dilemma forces her into a nervous breakdown. Her breakdowns are also a part of a carefully constructed mis-en-scene as her first breakdown when Bernard kisses her in the parking lot, is connected to her nervous breakdown towards the climax. Bernard and Mathilde first kiss in a dark, underground parking lot which is seemingly extremely unromantic. However, the dark unromantic setting of the couple’s explorations hints at the catastrophe that follows.
*Mis-en-scene: Film-making jargon for placement of objects in a frame or the visual direction.
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