The Man Next Door (***)

An Argentine furniture designer and his neighbor engage in passive-aggressive war of wills when the latter attempts to install a window with a view right into his high-rise unit. Almost this entire film is set in and around Curutchet House, the only building in South America designed by the architect Le Corbusier. (This is a minor plot point, as tourists turn up taking photos, or asking to see the inside.)

The designer explains that his wife is the one who doesn’t want the window, though he doesn’t either, and the neighbor plies him with gifts and promises to abandon his plans, but doesn’t. The film uses this tiny, almost absurd situation to examine these characters. The designer is kind of a jerk, and the neighbor is simply odd. A seriocomic edge pervades the film. The designer’s daughter won’t speak. The neighbor makes art out of 9mm shell cases. And much of the film is punctuated by the sounds of hammering coming from the apartment of the man next door.

IMDB link

viewed at Ritz 5 [Philadelphia Film Festival] and reviewed 10/19/10