The Woman Next Door (La Femme d'à côté) 1981 DVD Color widescreen 1.66:1 (16.9 enhanced) Approx. 101 min. French with English subtitles Playable in North America (US, Canada, etc.) Beautiful print.
Starring: Gérard Depardieu, Fanny Ardant, Henri Garcin, Michèle Baumgartner Written by: François Truffaut, Suzanne Schiffman and Jean Aurel Directed by François Truffaut
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 which ended painfully. At first Bernard avoids Mathilde, until a chance meeting in a supermarket reawakens long-buried passions and soon, while openly good neighbors, 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 hospitalized with depression. When she is released she finds that while some things have changed – their passions have not.
François Truffaut wrote the leading roles especially for his two stars, Gerard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant.