Facing Windows

2003 "Desire knows no bounds."
7.2| 1h46m| R| en
Details

Overburdened and stuck in a greying marriage, Giovanna takes to caring for a Jewish Holocaust survivor her husband brings home. As she begins to reflect on her life, she turns to the man who lives across from her.

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Reviews

Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing
Spoonixel Amateur movie with Big budget
Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
knowledgefiend Facing windows is the story of Giovanna, a woman that has grown dissatisfied with her marriage and her husband. She secretly watches the apartment that faces hers and the handsome bachelor Lorenzo that lives there. Her life suddenly becomes more interesting when her husband brings home an elderly man named Simone, that cannot remember where he is from or who he is. As the search for Simone's home and past continues, she finds help from her handsome neighbor Lorenzo. Will she fall in love with Lorenzo? What is the secret behind Simone's past?While this may sound like a steamy story of a dissatisfied housewife (the type that has become so overused in film), it is actually a very unique story that may not play out exactly as you are used to. All of these characters are brought to life wonderfully on screen and linger with you long after the film ends. It has a gentle message, something to chew on after the film is done, but it is more concerned with telling a beautiful story.Great acting, cinematography, and a unique story make this a film that even the most cynical film-goer will enjoy.
rowmorg This extraordinary work manages to turn an account of "une femme coincee" and her constricted working-class life into a towering statement about existence. It seems impossible that the story of a few weeks in the life of a book-keeper in a chicken "factory" and a man who checks the oil in a fleet of trucks at night could become a grand drama, but this is what Facing Windows achieves. How many times does this film give you a frisson of emotion, a shudder of insight? When most films can barely achieve one at all. Giovanna Mezzogiorno is remarkable in the lead role, balancing all the facets of her life, which has been a difficult one, because she plays an orphan, and triumphing over both herself and her relationship as the result of an unexpected friendship. One of those films, watchable again and again, that were made under a favorable moon.
Ozlem Direk One of the greatest Turkish directors ever, Ferzan Ozpetek has long proved himself as a director who doesn't only make good films but also makes them his own. With the elegant cast, the wonderful soundtrack and a cleverly knit story, La Finestra di Fronte is no exception to his brilliant movie-making.Beginning with the suffocatingly ordinary life of a young couple in Rome and developing as the couple host a stranger, an old man in their house and the lead actress' "improper" attraction to a stranger about whom she knows nothing; the story unfolds into the impossibility of two parallel love stories. The story of two young men during the Nazi suppression; and that of a man and a married woman; two relations both of which are considered highly immoral in their respective environments.Through the flashbacks, we are taken back to how love finds a way in a country under occupation and we see how the young woman sees her own love's fate in the old man's sad story.Worth seeing, and seeing again.
Diand Many people note the similarity to Rear Window. But except for some peeping there is no comparison to be drawn. This is more subdued Schindler's List as a back tale in another tale of self-discovery and fulfillment of personal interests and love. One evokes the other, as Giovanna learns bit by bit about the horror stories of razzias in Rome and she starts changing her life. By far the best and most emotional shot comes when Giovanna looks from her friend and neighbor Lorenzo's home to her own home and life. Effective use of doors and windows.But that's it. There are no deeper layers, complex film-making or any other cinematic efforts at work here. It moves somewhat predictable to its end. To set it up as a mystery was still an interesting choice.Massimo Girotti fits here perfectly. But it lacks some coherence, an almost trademark weakness of current Italian cinema.