Search - The Woman Next Door on DVD

The making of a diva

C. Court | http://adorio.blogspot.com/ | 07/14/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ardant and Depardieu look younger in this film, although age has not hurt Fanny Ardant, has made her even more beautiful (see 8 Femmes). This movie is about 20 years old so this was France at the time of Truffaut. This was the first movie of Fanny Ardant directed by Francois Truffaut. She is beautiful in this movie, in fact Truffaut eventually married her and they had a daughter.Gerard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant are former lovers who are reunited unintentionally after several years, as neighbors in a small village (think small ? none of Paris - with proverbial French dogs, yes, the canine variety, one is inside a restaurant with diners!) They are married to different people who both seem very nice, one would think the past is behind the two former lovers, but this is a Truffaut movie, it cannot be mundane or even predictable nor be a soap opera. While the movie will not push you on the edge of your seat, Truffaut is a master in exploiting the senses and emotions. The interactions of the former lovers gives you a glimpse of the nature of their past relationship. It was not an ordinary affair. Ardant and Depardieu rekindle their affair and the emotional roller coaster starts. There are deep psychological scars that now create new wounds with the rekindling of the relationship. The movie is sensuous, funny, lighthearted, disturbing then dark and sad. The end is very surprising.The DVD features trailers from Truffaut's other films including 400 Blows and the Wild Child."

One of Truffaut's Finest

William Kersten | Reno, NV United States | 07/08/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a film which epitomizes not only Francois Truffaut's recurrent themes - obsessive love, an ordinary man's cognizant self-destruction - but also his style of understatement, which, as a personal favorite of mine, is closer to the experience of real life than that of any other filmmaker. When one witnesses a supreme disaster, what does one notice? Not the kind of coverage of events such as many "hot" American directors today think is powerful - dozens of shots that show the same action over and over again in closeup, medium shot, full shot, tracking shot, crane shot, computer FX shot, you-name-it shot; but instead from the point of view of ONE person who is intimately involved - who may miss half of the action, yet agonizingly fills in what he missed with what he imagines. This is the genius of Truffaut, who represents this admirable Gallic trait perhaps as much as any other French artist of the twentieth century. The acting of the principals Ardant and Depardieu is perfection, and the story is one of relentless emotional buildup, leading to a shattering denoument."

The last Hitchcock `s farewell!

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 11/02/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Truffaut really looked outstanding with this somber psychological study of the human soul, its affections and reminiscences around the intend of reviving a past passionate love affair, when the casualty face them again. She is his neighbor but he is happily married, though she really does not care about it, because she is living her actual passion as if the time would have suspended. In this state of things this fact is not any obstacle to her.

A true gem of the French Cinema that has proved countless opportunities how handle with this issue. Depardieu and Ardant are both perfect: the final scene is simply unforgettable.

A true icon picture.
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