Véronique Silver: Odile Jouve

The Woman Next Door

Odile Jouve

[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.

[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]