The Woman Next Door

Bernard lives quietly near Grenoble with his wife and son when a new couple moves in next door. The woman is Mathilde, with whom he had a painful affair years earlier. At first they try to avoid each other; a chance meeting in a supermarket starts it again. François Truffaut directed. Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant star. The film is often compared to the legend of Tristan and Iseult, the difference being that this happens among middle-class people in a provincial city. Bernard's outburst at a garden party exposes the affair and they separate. Mathilde has a breakdown and is hospitalised; her husband moves them away. On the last night Bernard finds her in the empty house next door, and the meeting ends with both of them dead. It opened on 30 September 1981. It sold around 1.1 million tickets in France, the 39th highest-attended film of the year. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 85 percent from 13 reviews with a 7.8 average. Who it is for: viewers who like late Truffaut and films that treat passion as catastrophe. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for the characters to behave sensibly. The film says from the first scene that this is not available, and it keeps its word.