The Woman Next Door Analysis

The Woman Next Door (1981)

Directed by: Francois Truffaut

Available on Mubi

Bernard and his wife have new neighbors, a couple who just move in; the only issue here is that the woman in the couple, Mathilde and Bernard were in a relationship before some years.

This film has a simple premise, but it opens up the scope for a lot of things to happen with this. It is safe to say that In The Mood for Love by Wong Kar Wai explores similar themes as this film. The tonality of this film is a mixture of both the styles: realism and formalism in film. I found it a little similar to Hitchcock's films, especially the usage of music and the fade to black cuts which I found to be a little distorting. I couldn't figure out the reason for this noticeable editing style. This film also has a sense of realism, especially the way people talk and all the other elements we see on screen including props, costumes, set and essentially mise-en-scene, which is how the film maker is credited in the film: Mise-en-scene by Francois Truffaut.

Truffaut was criticized for being in an autobiographical shell, for his five films based on the character Antoine Doinel, which is inspired from his own life. I don't get why people criticize films that come from a personal space, those films are intimate and those are the films you wouldn't get to see if that particular film maker won't make them. So films which are autobiographical are unique and authentic as well, because the film maker themselves is the accountability for the material. As long as these don't get self indulgent to an extent where they turn a blind eye to it's relevance to the audience, I'm all in for such films. 

This film also captures the socio-cultural milieu of the setting very well, we get an idea about how people were in general in that time period and location. The film uses dialogue as the primary way of storytelling, that's how we know the backstories of everyone. It is almost done in an expository way, where Mathilde asks Bernard if he remembers the first time he saw her and he tells her and essentially us how they met; but the old woman's backstory was done in an interesting way. The film opens with an old woman breaking the fourth wall by talking into the camera about how she's going to tell us a story now, she breaks the fourth wall further by asking the camera to go back to show her properly and it's an interesting tool to use.

I didn't expect the ending, but it didn't punch me in the gut either. It felt a little out of place but it felt justified after Madame Jouve says what line would best describe their relationship, they can't live together, they can't live apart. That line best describes the film.