The Woman Next Door (1981)

Véronique Silver: Odile Jouve

Photos 

Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  [English subtitled version] 

  Odile Jouve : I'm afraid Mathilde and Bernard won't be buried together. If I had to write an inscription for their gravestone, I know what it would be: "Neither with you nor without you." But no one will ask my opinion.

• [English subtitled version] 

  Odile Jouve : My prosthesis is quite a hit. A guy followed me for ages the other day. I crossed the street, changed directions, when he finally approached me. I couldn't get rid of him. He was a fetishist.

  Bernard Coudray : I'm not surprised. I saw a film like that. There's a woman who's afraid of being held in a man's arms. She couldn't stand it. Not at all. To please her, a guy cuts his arms off.

  Odile Jouve : Both of them?

  Bernard Coudray : I guess. Or maybe one. Anyway, he did it for love.

• [English subtitled version] 

  Odile Jouve : [about his just completed telephone call to Arlette]  Idiot. Why not tell me to leave? I couldn't help overhear you lying. Shame on you.

  Bernard Coudray : Yes. Yes, I lied. Yes... I said I was at work. I don't usually lie, you know.

  Odile Jouve : You were pretty convincing. I can blackmail you now! Come on. Buy my silence with a bourbon.

• [English subtitled version] 

  Bernard Coudray : [about getting to know his new neighbors]  I like to take it slow. I need to get used to things. You know how it is: we invite them, then they invite us, and then...

  Odile Jouve : A vicious cycle!

• [English subtitled version] 

  Odile Jouve : [about her injuries]  It was a long time ago. It'll be twenty years next year. It was during the Algerian putsch. I can tell you the truth now, 'cause I like you. I didn't fall. I threw myself out the window like a sack of linen.

  Bernard Coudray : You don't say. That takes courage.

  Odile Jouve : Don't be silly. It wasn't brave, just desperate. Madly in love and desperate. He left for New Caledonia and dumped me. Like an idiot, I still hoped. Then I heard he'd gotten married. So, Geronimo!

  Bernard Coudray : What did he say when he found out?

  Odile Jouve : I made sure he never did. It's much better that way.

  Bernard Coudray : That's true. Men don't like to hear things like that.

  Odile Jouve : They're right. I'd say that my story was tragic, but not fatal. Like Edith Piaf, I don't regret a thing. Not one thing.

• [English subtitled version] 

  Bernard Coudray : [about his new neighbors]  He's kind of laid-back, cool as a cucumber.

  Odile Jouve : And her?

  Bernard Coudray : I don't know. She's kind of gloomy. One of those really complicated women, you know?

  Odile Jouve : Never met one of those...

• [English subtitled version] 

  Odile Jouve : Such lovely hair! I can't resist touching it. Especially dark hair. There are too many blondes.

  Mathilde Bauchard : At the club or in general?

  Odile Jouve : Both. It's due to movies, TV. Especially advertising, it's a terrible influence.

• [English subtitled version] 

  Odile Jouve : Paris was hellish. Those people are maniacs.

• [first lines] 

  [English subtitled version] 

  Odile Jouve : [voice over]  It was still dark when the police left Grenoble, fifteen miles from the village.

  Odile Jouve : [speaking directly into the camera which is focused on her face with tennis courts behind her]  We also called an ambulance which must've already arrived, as it was closer. My name is Odile Jouve, and if you think I'm a tennis player, you're absolutely wrong. If the cameraman doesn't mind pulling back, you'll understand immediately.

  Odile Jouve : [to the unseen cameraman]  Pull back!

  [the camera pulls back to show that Odile has a prosthetic on the lower portion of one leg and requires a forearm cane to walk]