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The Woman Next Door

The Woman Next Door

Drama · Romance · 1981

Two ex-lovers wind up living next door to each other with their respective spouses. Forbidden passions ensue.

Movie details

The Woman Next Door

“A destructive passion between desire and madness.”

1981 Drama · Romance 1h 46m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.2 / 10

9K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

85 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

7.1 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Two ex-lovers wind up living next door to each other with their respective spouses. Forbidden passions ensue.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Woman Next Door?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

The Secret

The Secret

Romance · 2000

Marie, who works as a successful door-to-door encyclopedia salesperson, has been married to her husband Francois for 12 years and has a two-year-old son. Though she is relatively content with her life, she feels something is wanting. Enter 50-year old African-American Bill. Initially she is annoyed by his insouciance, but she finds that she is irresistibly attracted to him. Soon the two are in the midst of sordid illicit affair. She knows little about her new lover, and he seems uninterested in learning about her, but the long sessions of lovemaking are something else entirely. Feeling out of control, Marie is increasingly repelled by her own actions. Psychologically, she struggles to reconcile her torrid encounters with Bill and mundane domestic chores such as bathing her son. Moreover, she finds herself incapable of hiding her adulterous behavior, rather she comes home with scratches and hickeys all over her body, to the devastation Francois.

The Married Woman

The Married Woman

Drama · 1964

A superficial woman finds conflict choosing between her abusive husband and her vain lover.

Gervaise

Gervaise

Romance · 1956

Gervaise Macquart is a beautiful Parisian laundress and mother whose lover, Lantier, walks out on her. She eventually marries Henri Coupeau, a roofer who has an unfortunate accident. As her now crippled husband descends into alcoholism, Gervaise tries to make ends meet on her own. Life becomes even more complicated when Lantier returns and befriends Henri. Meanwhile, the man she really loves is sent to prison.

Love

Love

Drama · 2015

Murphy is an American living in Paris who enters a highly sexually and emotionally charged relationship with the unstable Electra. Unaware of the seismic effect it will have on their relationship, they invite their pretty neighbor into their bed.

Desire

Desire

Drama · 2011

In a social context deteriorated by a countrywide economic crisis, the life of several people will be turned upside down after they meet Cécile, a character who symbolizes desire.

Double Lover

Double Lover

Romance · 2017

Chloé, a fragile young woman, falls in love with her psychoanalyst, Paul. A few months later she moves in with him, but soon discovers that her lover is concealing a part of his identity.

Emmanuelle

Emmanuelle

Drama · 1974

An employee at the French Embassy in Bangkok invites his wife to join him – and enjoy the benefits of their open marriage.

Middle of the Night

Middle of the Night

Drama · 1959

Jerry Kingsley is a wealthy garment manufacturer left lonely in his 50s when his wife dies. Despite the difference in their ages, he strikes up a romance with divorced 24-year-old receptionist Betty. The relationship is dismissed by his daughter, Lillian, discouraged by his sister, Evelyn, and denounced by Betty's mother. But when Jerry begins to mention marriage, even Betty is forced to confront her ambivalence.

Time Is Up

Time Is Up

Romance · 2021

Vivien, an accomplished student with a passion for physics, and Roy, a troubled young man, are involved in an accident that forces them to reclaim their lives one minute at the time.

Fatal Attraction

Fatal Attraction

Thriller · 1987

A married man's one-night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

François Truffaut

Written by

Suzanne Schiffman · Jean Aurel · François Truffaut

Gérard Depardieu

Gérard Depardieu

Bernard Coudray

Fanny Ardant

Fanny Ardant

Mathilde Bauchard

Henri Garcin

Henri Garcin

Philippe Bauchard

Michèle Baumgartner

Michèle Baumgartner

Arlette Coudray

Roger Van Hool

Roger Van Hool

Roland Duguet

Véronique Silver

Véronique Silver

Madame Odile Jouve

Philippe Morier-Genoud

Philippe Morier-Genoud

Doctor

Court is in session

Put The Woman Next Door on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.